Age bias suit still pending

An attorney for a 47-year-old former employee who filed an age discrimination suit against the University said yesterday that he is pursuing an out of court settlement. But the University's lawyer said the plaintiff's lawyer has never said anything to the University about settling the case, which was filed in October. "That's news to me," Associate General Counsel Neil Hamburg said yesterday. "He's never said word one to me." Hamburg, who said the case "has no merit," has also said he was eager for the case to move to a courtroom. The suit, brought by William Volz, a former associate director of technical support services for the University, alleges that the University harassed Volz "from the day his employment commenced in an effort to force him to resign," and that Volz was fired on a "pretextual ground of inept job performance." Volz is seeking back pay awards, reinstatement to his former job or to a similar job or payment of his former salary and benefits until he turns 70. Hamburg said yesterday that the case was in the discovery phase, meaning that attorneys for Volz and the University have begun taking statements from the other side's witnesses. He said the case would go to trial in May. The complaint alleges that Volz was replaced by "younger, less qualified employees under 40 years of age." The University's response to Volz's complaint alleges that Volz had "failed on numerous occasions to complete jobs or complete them on time," and suggests that from questions Volz asked on the job, he could not have been as qualified as he claimed to be when he interviewed for the job. The response also says Volz's supervisor received "a number of complaints" from female employees that Volz "acted in a bizarre manner by standing around their desks without talking." The response also calls Volz's managerial skills "suspect," and claims he did not divide assignments evenly, giving a disproportionately low amounts of work to a black female employee, even after his supervisor instructed him to give her more work. Volz's attorney, Daniel Weisman said yesterday that his client was "quite insulted" by the implication that he refused to treat a black female equitably. "First of all, she is not the only minority in the department," Weisman said. "[Volz] contends he distributed assignments according to the skills of the employees under him." "[Volz] felt her race and sex were completely irrelevant," he said, adding that his client thought that she was a good programmer.