Former WeWork VP files a suit over age discrimination

Richard Markel, 62, filed a lawsuit against his former employer, WeWork Cos. on the basis of a claim that the New-York-based coworking giant hired a younger man to assume his responsibilities.

Markel has claimed in the lawsuit that he was discriminated against based on age during his tenure of about a year as VP of Construction for the West Coast. The same lawsuit which is filed with the San Francisco Superior Court also claims that the company mis-represented the role as a long-term position and when he reported the alleged discrimination to HR, he was terminated.

WeWork hired another person who was 20 years younger than him with the same title as Markel.

The coworking space behemoth is valued at $47 Bn and has more than 425 locations across the globe. Its business model is based on renting out office space on a short-term basis. Last year, it acquired a part of the construction company UA Builders Group, Markel’s employer prior to WeWork.

In April 2018, Markel moved to San Francisco from New York where he was paid about $300,000 annual salary. He would have begun to get stock options under a vesting schedule starting from April 2019. In February, Markel reported to the HR department that he felt he was being discriminated against because of his age.

Another lawsuit that was filed against WeWork was a gender discrimination claim in October, wherein Ruby Anaya was allegedly harassed by two colleagues at office events.

As of the time of publishing the article, WeWork had not replied with a comment to the queries.