We thus affirm the District Court's conclusions that Ohio is not a § 633(b) state and that the 300-day filing period of § 626(d)(2) was therefore not available to Appellant. This Court, in Hiscott v. General Electric Co., 521 F.2d 632 (6th Cir. 1975), following a review of the Act's legislative history, concluded that compliance with the notice requirements contained in § 626 is a jurisdictional prerequisite to the filing of an action under the ADEA. The Hiscott Court noted that the Fifth Circuit in Powell v. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., 494 F.2d 485 (5th Cir. 1974), and numerous District Courts have reached the same conclusion.

Plaintiff was . . . demoted from sales to market research on January 15, 1974. The earliest date on which plaintiff could be said to have given notice to the Secretary of Labor is August 15, 1975, when plaintiff filed a written complaint with the Wage and Hour Administrator, alleging that he had been discriminated against, though he did not say he intended to file suit. Powell, supra, [Powell v. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co.] 494 F.2d [485] at 489 (holds this does not constitute notice); Hiscott v. General Electric Co., 521 F.2d 632, 634 (6th Cir. 1975) (accord). Assuming arguendo that this constituted "notice," it is still more than 180 days after the allegedly discriminatory act. Plaintiff also contends that he was told by Mr. Samworth of the Wage Hour Division shortly after he filed his August 15 complaint and by an unidentified employee of the Wage Hour Division just before he filed his August 15 complaint that his transfer and demotion was a continuing violation.

In Powell v.Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., 494 F.2d 485, 487-89 (1974), after noting that section 626(d) was designed to inform employers of alleged ADEA violations, to foster conciliation of disputed claims, and to provide parties with the opportunity to preserve evidence for trial should conciliation fail, we held that section 626(d)'s requirements were necessary conditions precedent to maintaining an ADEA suit. That Charlier provided the Wage Hour Division with information of the alleged unlawful discrimination of Johnson Wax within 180 days of his discharge does not satisfy 29 U.S.C. § 626(d)'s requirement that he furnish a notice letter. Powell v. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., 494 F.2d 485, 488-89 (5th Cir. 1974); accord, Dartt v. Shell Oil Co., 539 F.2d 1256, 1259 (10th Cir. 1976), cert. granted, 429 U.S. 1097, 97 S.Ct. 1097, 51 L.Ed.2d 534 (1977); Hiscott v. General Electric Co., 521 F.2d 632, 634 (6th Cir. 1974); Davis v. RJR Foods, Inc., 420 F. Supp. 930, 933 (S.D.N.Y. 1976). 29 U.S.C. § 626(d) provides:

Order of the district court (unpublished), July 26, 1977. The district court held that each of the grounds asserted by Wright had been considered and rejected by this court in Hiscott v. General Electric Co., 521 F.2d 632 (6th Cir. 1975), and Eklund v. Lubrizol Corp., 529 F.2d 247 (6th Cir. 1976). See also, Rucker v. Great Scott Supermarkets, 528 F.2d 393 (6th Cir. 1976).

nd a lawyer satisfied the requirement of Section 626(d) ( Woodford v. Kinney Shoe Corporation, N.D.Ga. 1973, 369 F.Supp. 911, 914-915; Sutherland v. SKF Industries, Inc., E.D.Pa. 1976, 419 F.Supp. 610, 615-616), that his notice of intent to sue did not have to be in any particular form ( cf. Burgett v. Cudahy Company, D.Kan. 1973, 361 F.Supp. 617, 619, 621), and, in any event, appellant should have been given an opportunity at trial to show circumstances that might operate to cure any defect in filing his notice of intention to sue. Appellees contend that Section 626(d) plainly bars appellant's claims because his alleged December 1973 notice of intention to sue was not in writing ( Hays v. Republic Steel Corp., 5th Cir. 1976, 531 F.2d 1307, 1312); the written notices filed in 1976 were ineffective because filing the notices within the time prescribed in Section 626(d) was a condition precedent to successful suit in the district court ( Hiscott v. General Electric Co., 6th Cir. 1975, 521 F.2d 632; Adams v. Federal Signal Corp., 5th Cir. 1977, 559 F.2d 433), and appellant made no showing of entitlement to equitable relief from the statutory bar. Cf. Powell v. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., 5th Cir. 1974, 494 F.2d 485; Ott v. Midland-Ross Corp., 6th Cir. 1975, 523 F.2d 1367, 1370; Dartt v. Shell Oil Co., 10th Cir. 1976, 539 F.2d 1256, 1261-1262, aff'd by equally divided Court, 1977, 434 U.S. 99, 98 S.Ct. 600, 54 L.Ed.2d 270. Appellees contend, further, that appellant is barred because he did not file a timely complaint with the State Human Rights Division, as required by 29 U.S.C. § 633(b).

Bonham's action is barred only if the 180-day requirement is viewed as strictly "jurisdictional" and not subject to tolling or similar equitable modifications. While it is true, as the district court recognized, that some authority favors the view that the 180-day requirement is a jurisdictional prerequisite to suit, see Ott v. Midland-Ross Corp., 523 F.2d 1367 (6th Cir. 1975); Hiscott v. General Electric Co., 521 F.2d 632 (6th Cir. 1975); Powell v. Southwestern Bell Tel. Co., 494 F.2d 485 (5th Cir. 1974), the decisions are not all in accord. The Fifth Circuit, while terming the requirement "jurisdictional," has nevertheless found equitable reasons for tolling or waiving.

But this limitation is conditioned upon compliance with the notice statute. Reich v. Dow Badishe Co., 575 F.2d 363, 370, (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1006, 99 S.Ct. 621, 58 L.Ed.2d 683 (1978); Davis v. RJR Foods, Inc., 420 F. Supp. 930 (S.D.N.Y. 1976), aff'd, 556 F.2d 555 (2d Cir. 1977); Hiscott v. General Electric Co., 521 F.2d 632 (6th Cir. 1975). In order for an employee to commence a civil action he must file a notice of intent to sue with the Secretary of Labor within one hundred and eighty days after the alleged unlawful practice occurred; in cases in which state proceedings can be commenced, the employee has three hundred days to notify the Secretary. Goodman v. Heublein, Inc., 645 F.2d 127 (2d Cir. 1981); Ewald v. Great Atlantic Pac. Tea Co., Inc., 449 U.S. 914, 101 S.Ct. 311, 66 L.Ed.2d 143 (1980), vacating and remanding 620 F.2d 1183 (6th Cir. 1980) (Supreme Court vacated circuit court ruling that required filing of notice with federal or state government within 180 days for reconsideration in light of Mohasco Corp. v. Silver, 447 U.S. 807, 816 n. 19, 100 S.Ct. 2486, 2491 n. 19, 65 L.Ed.2d 532 (1980)).

The first two circuit courts to consider this issue concluded that failure to comply with the notice of intent to sue requirement was an absolute bar to suits under ADEA. See e. g., Ott v. Midland-Ross Corp., 523 F.2d 1367 (6th Cir. 1975); Hiscott v. General Electric Co., 521F.2d 632 (6th Cir. 1975); Edwards v. KaiserAluminum Chemical Sales, Inc., 515 F.2d 1195 (5th Cir. 1975); Powell v. Southwestern Bell Tel. Co., 494 F.2d 485 (5th Cir. 1975). However, more recently the Tenth, Seventh and Third Circuits have rejected this restrictive reading of the notice of intent to sue requirement.

The question of whether the 180-day filing requirement in the ADEA is an inflexible jurisdictional limitation or a provision analogous to a statute of limitation, and thus open to the application of the equitable doctrines of tolling and estoppel, has not been decided by the Third Circuit. Other courts which have addressed the issue are sharply divided. While there is ample authority for the proposition that the 180-day filing requirement is jurisdictional: e.g., Ott v. Midland-Ross Corp., 523 F.2d 1367 (6th Cir. 1975); Hiscott v. General Electric Co., 521 F.2d 632 (6th Cir. 1975); Edwards v. Kaiser Aluminum Chemical Sales, Inc., 515 F.2d 1195 (5th Cir. 1975); Powell v. Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, 494 F.2d 485 (5th Cir. 1974); we nevertheless conclude that the filing period in section 626(d)(1) is more closely akin to a statute of limitation and may be equitably tolled given the proper circumstances. Accord, Dartt v. Shell Oil Company, 539 F.2d 1256 (10th Cir. 1976), cert. granted, 429 U.S. 1089, 97 S.Ct. 1097, 51 L.Ed.2d 534 (Feb. 20, 1977); Skoglund v. Singer Company, 403 F. Supp. 797 (D.N.H. 1975).

Dartt v. Shell Oil Co., 539 F.2d 1256, 1259 (10th Cir. 1976), aff'd by an equally divided court, 431 U.S. 936, 97 S.Ct. 2646, 53 L.Ed.2d 253 (1977). Accord, Newcomer v. International Business Machines Corp., 598 F.2d 968, 969 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 984, 100 S.Ct. 491, 62 L.Ed.2d 413 (1979); Charlier v. S.C. Johnson Son, Inc., 556 F.2d 761, 765 (5th Cir. 1977); Hiscott v. General Electric Co., 521 F.2d 632, 634 (6th Cir. 1975); Powell v. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., 494 F.2d 485, 489 (5th Cir. 1974). We disagree with the contrary holding in Woodford v. Kinney Shoe Corp., 369 F. Supp. 911 (N.D.Ga. 1973), on which Hageman principally relies.