Last week, Lockheed Martin agreed to pay $131,000 to settle a lawsuit brought against the aerospace defense contractor by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  The EEOC alleged that Lockheed Martin threatened to withhold severance benefits from a group of employees who had alleged age discrimination in connection with layoffs at the company’s communications unit.  Enhanced severance benefits are often offered as an inducement for employees to waive and release age discrimination claims related to a reduction in force.  However, in this situation, the EEOC claimed that Lockheed Martin threatened not to pay severance benefits to which the employees were entitled even in the absence of a waiver.  The agency contended that such actions in response to the age claims constituted retaliation against the employees’ protected activities.