Fired warehouse supervisor’s age discrimination case reinstated

A federal appeals court Friday reinstated an age discrimination lawsuit filed by a former food distribution company warehouse supervisor who, after years of positive performance reviews, was replaced with a new hire 11 years his junior.

Nicholas Vichio was rated a “high-performing” warehouse supervisor at Rosemont, Illinois-based US Foods Inc. for more than four years prior to the company’s hiring of a new vice president of operations, according to the ruling by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago in Nicholas Vichio v. US Foods Inc.

Mr. Vichio, who was 54 at the time, received his first negative performance review after the 37-year-old vice president was hired. The company terminated him in 2017, and he was replaced with a 43-year-old employee.

Mr. Vichio sued US Foods under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act in U.S. District Court in Chicago, and the court granted the company summary judgment, dismissing the case.

A unanimous three-judge appeals court panel overturned the lower court, saying, “There is significant evidence in the record to support a reasonable inference that US Foods used Vichio’s performance as pretext for discrimination,” it said.

In addition to Mr. Vichio’s having had a pristine record and being replaced by a much younger man, the vice president “appeared to be the driving force behind concocting generalized negative feedback for Vichio,” and Mr. Vichio’s immediate supervisors did not share the vice president’s “purported concerns with Vichio’s performance,” the panel said in overturning the lower court.
Attorneys in the case did not respond to requests for comment.