AGE DISCRIMINATION
The Employment Tribunal did not give sufficient reasons for its conclusions on the question of age discrimination. There was substantial material tending to indicate that the timing of its decision to dismiss the Claimant was wholly or partly because of her age and that she was treated less favourably in this respect than the Respondent would treat others. The Employment Tribunal did not mention this material or say in its reasons how it dealt with it. In a discrimination claim the Employment Tribunal’s reasons were required to address material of this kind.
The Employment Tribunal gave its conclusions on the question of justification by reference to Woodcock v Cumbria Primary Health Care Trust [2012] ICR 1126. It should have reached its own reasoned conclusions on the question of legitimate aim and proportionality. Woodcock was not intended to lay down any general principle that eliding a redundancy or redeployment process because of an employee’s age would always be a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.
David Richardson HHJ
[2014] UKEAT 0114 – 14 – 2908
Bailii
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 03 January 2022; Ref: scu.551967