New York, New York – September 26, 2011 – Abbey Spanier Rodd & Abrams, LLP Green Savits & Lenzo, LLC; and Sapir & Frumkin LLP announce the filing of an amended complaint in an age discrimination class action against Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE: DGX).

Plaintiff's amended complaint alleges that Quest and the individual defendants have and continue to discriminate against older members of Quest's sales force on a nationwide basis in violation of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination ("NJLAD"). In addition, the amended complaint, which was filed August 15, 2011, adds claims for violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ("ERISA").

The discriminatory course of conduct described in the amended complaint began as early as January 2008 soon after Dr. Surya Mohapatra, Quest's current CEO, and Robert Hagemann, Quest's Chief Financial Officer, determined that Quest wanted to reduce its cost structure and project a more youthful image. To meet those goals, defendants conceived and directed a plan to "manage out" the older members of Quest's physician, hospital and MedPlus sales organizations across the United States to make room for young new recruits.

The amended complaint alleges that defendants, who are headquartered in Madison, New Jersey, devised and implemented policies and strategies to manipulate how the performance of older members of Quest's sales force were evaluated, providing a pretext for terminations. Because termination for poor performance is a disqualifying event under Quest's severance policy, defendants also used this scheme to achieve additional cost savings by avoiding the need to make severance payments to older sales people who had long tenure with the company.

Plaintiff is seeking remedial relief and damages, not limited to back and front pay, lost benefits and restitution, compensatory damages and punitive damages on behalf of herself and the Class.

Plaintiff and the Class are represented by Abbey Spanier Rodd & Abrams, LLP; Green Savits & Lenzo, LLC; and Sapir & Frumkin LLP.

Click here to view the amended complaint.

Judith L. Spanier, Esq.
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