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The Eighth Circuit has held that a provision in a collective bargaining agreement requiring the employer to maintain a workforce in which at least one of every five workers is at least 50 years old violates the Minnesota Human Rights Act (the MHRA) and cannot be enforced. Ace Elec. Contractors Inc. v. Int'l Bhd. of Elec. Workers Local 292, 2005 WL 1639458 (8th Cir. Jul. 14).

As part of a reduction in force, Ace Electrical Contractors (Ace) terminated a number of employees, including two workers who were over the age of 50. Those two employees, who were members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 292 (the Union), then claimed that their termination violated the collective bargaining agreement and filed a grievance against Ace. Upon entertaining the grievance and failing to reach a determination, the labor-management committee of the Minneapolis chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association (the NECA) requested an opinion from the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (the Department). Although the Department's opinion clearly stated that the age ratio provided for in the collective bargaining agreement violated the MHRA, the arbitrator decided in favor of the employees, and Ace and the NECA filed in state court seeking to vacate that award. The action was then removed to federal court by the union. The district court followed the Department's opinion in holding that the age ratio provision violated the MHRA, and the Union appealed.