Surrey executive Megan Thomas recently won a ground-breaking age discrimination case. Whilst working as the membership secretary at the Eight Members Club in London, she was told that she was not mature enough to deal with customers, and was dismissed. The Central London Employment Tribunal found that she had been unfairly dismissed and discriminated against on the grounds of age under new laws targeting age discrimination. Ms Thomas was awarded compensation for injury to feelings.
Richard Brown, expert in employment law at rhw Solicitors, says that much of the emphasis on the age discrimination laws to date has been targeted towards senior employees, retirement ages and pension rights.
"The case of Megan Thomas shows, however, that employers bear the risk of age discrimination claims throughout the entire employment lifespan, even before the person is employed; from advertising for an employee, recruitment, training to termination".
"Many employers do not appreciate that they can be vicariously liable for the acts of their employees", says Richard.
"The key issue is training staff to understand that age discrimination is not acceptable in the workplace and that there is a litigation risk".
How to avoid an age discrimination claim and a big bill - Advice from rhw solicitors.
Employers need to act now to ensure that they are compliant. The Employers Forum on Age estimates that 200 age discrimination cases are reaching the tribunals every month, i.e. nearly 2,500 cases a year.
Human Resource departments need to be aware of the criteria for a claim, and what their potential defences to a claim could be. Equally they should know the form of the complainant's questionnaire and how to respond.
Employers should review their internal policies to make sure that there are no practices or procedures that could be construed as being ageist, or creating an ageist environment, and they should provide training to staff.
The harassment strand of the law extends to where an individual engages in unwanted conduct which has the purpose or effect of violating dignity; or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the other person.
Rhw solicitors offer a corporate "health check" review of internal policies.
This is especially relevant as there is a statutory defence for the employer to prove that they took such steps as were reasonably practicable to prevent employees from committing an act of age discrimination on a third party, who might then sue.
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