A story in the Boston Globe this morning says AFTRA is going after WSVN owner Sunbeam Television accusing them of age discrimination at their Boston television station WHDH. According to the Globe, AFTRA has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board after negotiations on new contracts broke down reportedly because of age discrimination issues and compensation for on-air talent.
AFTRA had a proposal to add training, the creation of a 10-person committee to report on age discrimination at the station staffed by WHDHÂ employees and for an age discrimination trainer to visit once an year. WHDH general manager Chris Wayland is quoted as saying that that the station doesn’t discriminate and in fact already provides training to its employees by a highly credentialed national trainer.
AFTRA raised the age issues after Sunbeam Television lost an age discrimination lawsuit in August of 2010 brought up by former WSVN health reporter Marilyn Mitzel. A jury found that Mitzel was discriminated against and awarded her nearly a million dollars. Mitzel claimed she was let go because of her age, she was 52 when they fired her in 2006, while Sunbeam’s Vice President of News for both stations Alice Jacobs, said on the stand the station simply wanted to move in a different direction and do more breaking news. Since Mitzel’s departure health reports on WSVN are usually fronted by the morning anchors, and for a time they aired pre-packaged health reports presented by former CNN-er Judy Fortin.
Boston Globe: Union says age is issue at WHDH
Good for AFTRA. It’s important not to look the other way when a company discriminates on the basis of age.