Chicago (AP) – Workers fired because employers consider them too old are going to court in greater numbers to fight for the right to stay on the job, federal officials say.

For some, it’s a matter of principle.

“I could never have lived with myself or my children if I had not taken on this fight,” said Bernard Holzman, 66, of Flossmoor, who last week was awarded $185,015 by the federal jury hearing his age discrimination case.

“I was innocent of wrongdoing and could not let them get away with anything,” he said.

Holzman was fired in 1982 from the clothing-sales job he had held for more than three decades, although a personnel file indicated he was a commended worker, according to a report in Tuesday’s Chicago Sun-Times.

“It seems more of these age discrimination cases are going to trial and reaching successful plaintiff awards,” said Kathleen Mulligan, an attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.