OAKLAND, Calif., March 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Ten former AAA agents with a combined tenure of 250 years, filed suit in Contra Costa County for age and race discrimination, wrongful termination and other charges against the American Automobile Association of Northern California, Nevada & Utah, et al. (AAA)
These ten former agents along with several of their former clients, family members and their attorneys rallied in Walnut Creek to speak with the media. Attorney Gary Gwilliam of Gwilliam Ivary Chiosso Cavalli & Brewer is the lead attorney representing the terminated agents.
AAA’s motivation for age and race discrimination was money, plain and simple!
“The motivation for age and race discrimination was money, plain and simple! In our complaint we allege that AAA systematically targeted and then wrongfully terminated our clients without cause and have done the same thing to scores of other AAA agents as a way to aggressively improve their bottom line at a time of record profits for AAA”, said Gary Gwilliam, Esq.
“AAA is a non-profit member-based association. Member premiums are going to support the discriminatory practices of AAA, including being used to defend lawsuits such as ours. These ten agents were top tier performers throughout their tenure with AAA. They had hundreds of customers who trusted them to speak their language and to help them right-size their insurance policies to best suit their family needs. In our complaint we allege that AAA didn’t want to have to pay sales commissions to our hard-working clients and instead chose to wrongfully terminate then gave the established books of business our clients had to much younger and lower cost workers”, said Randall Strauss, Managing Partner with Gwilliam Ivary Chiosso Cavalli & Brewer.
One of our clients, Alvaro Perez, worked for the Sacramento AAA office for more than 20 years.
Here is Alvaro’s statement, “I worked for 21 happy years with AAA. All my career I was one of the top producers of the company (Northern CA, Sacramento office). I helped AAA for many years by being the face representing AAA to Hispanic media (Univision & Telemundo) for the Sacramento area. My work with AAA benefitted myself, it benefitted my customers and importantly, my work directly benefited AAA the most due to my large portfolio of over 5K customers. I always took care of my customers and frequently my customers would refer me to their extended families and friends. In some cases, I handled the multi-generational insurance needs of my customers. I was very involved with the community representing AAA as a soccer coach. I have an exceptional work ethic. I was never called out for any poor performance or wrongdoing. I had 20+ years of very high-performance ratings. On my 20-year anniversary, the executives & managers threw a big celebration party for me. Suddenly less than two months later and without cause, I was wrongly terminated due to my Latino race, my age, and my affiliation with the union. The retaliation and intimidation that I and my fellow AAA agents have experienced were focused on AAA getting rid of older agents with large books of business which AAA wanted to give to younger and lower paid agents. My job was such an important part of my life. Not only the financial loss but the stigma of being wrongfully terminated and no longer being able to provide for my family has been crushing. My mental health has been impacted, and I struggle to rebuild my self-confidence. AAA is making record profits as the insurance premiums of my former client’s skyrocket. It is all about corporate greed”.
The Plaintiffs are seeking financial restitution for lost compensation and punitive damages so that AAA doesn’t ever destroy the lives of future employees by choosing to target, discriminate, harass, and wrongfully terminate employees for greed.
SOURCE The Law Firm of Gwilliam Ivary Chiosso Cavalli & Brewer
