IBM Canada can't duck channel exec's systematic age discrimination claim

Three years ago, Bruce Maule, worldwide president of channel marketing at IBM, was informed by bosses that his position was being eliminated.

But allegedly the position wasn't eliminated. "When IBM fired me, their stated reason was that they were reducing headcount, but they actually replaced me with a younger employee," Maule told The Register this week.

Since 1997, Maule, an employee of IBM Canada, had been working out of New York in the United States, because that's where Big Blue's worldwide jobs like his were based.

He sued IBM Canada in June 2022 for age discrimination in a Toronto, Ontario court, claiming the subsidiary has been following systematic age discrimination policies adopted by IBM US in 2013. Many fired IBM employees have made similar allegations, which have been supported by reporting from ProPublica and by the US Equal Opportunity Employment Commission.

Maule said in the years prior to his termination, he saw many examples of age discrimination. His complaint says that he became aware that IBM US and IBM Canada might be targeting older workers in 2015 when his superior was terminated without cause after 30 years of service and then replaced with a younger executive with no experience in channel marketing.

In February 2022, IBM Chief Human Resources Officer Nickle LaMoreaux denied that the IT giant had a systematic plan to get rid of older workers. "Discrimination of any kind is entirely against our culture and who we are at IBM, and there was (and is) no systemic age discrimination at our company," she said.

Extinction event

LaMoreaux's post – dismissed by IBM's own employees on internal message boards – was published in response to media reports about damning internal company communications that surfaced in conjunction with a document [PDF] filed in Lohnn vs International Business Machines, an age discrimination lawsuit brought by the widow of an IBM exec who took his own life after being laid off. The document describes an unidentified executive who used the disparaging term "dinobabies" to refer to older workers and endorsed their extinction.

Another document [PDF] in that case discussed the tech giant's "dated maternal workforce," and called for a headcount shift toward a greater percentage of "early professional hires" – young employees. IBM settled the Lohnn case six months later.

"I was fired from IBM without cause in September 2021, after 34 years of service, 24 years in an executive role," said Maule.

"I was a worldwide VP at the time of my wrongful dismissal. Paradoxically, I was under a retention contract at the time, as in November of 2019 IBM induced me to stay with the firm by offering a financial incentive, and this contract was in force at the time of my firing."

Maule is seeking a ruling that requires IBM to provide an appropriate layoff notice period for workers, which is between 24 and 36 months under Canadian law. He is also seeking damages for wrongful dismissal and punitive damages amounting to CA$150,000 ($108,000, £85,000) for being subject to systematic age discrimination.

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IBM Canada has been trying to have Maule's claims about systematic age discrimination by IBM US thrown out, arguing his pleadings should be struck because they're irrelevant or scandalous.

Canadian rules of civil procedure allow courts to disallow pleadings that: (a) may prejudice or delay the fair trial of the action; (b) are scandalous, frivolous or vexatious; or (c) are an abuse of the process of the court.

"IBM objected to several elements of my claim, and went to court, in Toronto, Ontario, arguing that my claim of systemic age discrimination should be disallowed," said Maule. "They also claimed that since I was an IBM Canada employee, I have no rights to make claims about things that happened to me in the US, nor to use and request evidence from the US."

... plaintiff has pleaded the necessary and sufficient material facts to support a claim of systemic age discrimination

That legal gambit by the mainframe giant delayed the case for a year, though in April 2024, Ontario Superior Court Associate Justice Robert Frank ruled against IBM Canada's motion and allowed Maule's claim to proceed.

Frank found that IBM Canada's interpretation of relevance to be too narrow because Maule's pleadings clearly alleged a connection with IBM US and its policies.

"IBM Canada also asserts that the systemic age discrimination pleadings should be struck out as scandalous because the pleadings are bare allegations of systemic discrimination at IBM US that are based on a speculative and strained conspiracy theory," wrote Associate Justice Frank, in a legal decision seen by The Register.

"I do not agree. While pleadings that are bare allegations should be struck out as scandalous, the plaintiff has pleaded the necessary and sufficient material facts to support a claim of systemic age discrimination."

IBM has appealed that decision and a hearing is scheduled for May 2025. The corporation did not respond to a request for comment. ®