Lawful use of length of service in redundancy selection criteria.

An employee of a UK subsidiary may only claim age discrimination under a share plan operated by an overseas parent if the overseas parent has aided and abetted an act of unlawful age discrimination by the UK subsidiary.

Sharma v Millbrook Beds Ltd involved an employer whose attempts to reduce the risk of a claim backfired.

This is the first reported age discrimination case dealing with the thorny issue of flexible benefits schemes; in particular the implication of age-related premiums in the private medical insurance component of such a scheme.

A tribunal has ruled that a law firm did not unlawfully discriminate on age grounds when it reformed its partner pension scheme - even though the extent of partners’ losses depended on their age.

In general, employers do not need specifically to justify using length of service to calculate pay, according to the ECJ in Cadman v Health and Safety Executive.