AGE DISCRIMINATION CASES

Age discrimination cases are coming through the tribunals thick and fast. Employment Tribunal figures show an increase in age discrimination claims from 972 in 2006/7 when the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 came into force, to 2,949 in 2007/8, 3,801 in 2008/9 and 5,200 in 2009/10. We summarise some of the most important in this section.

The latest age discrimination case reports appear below. The links on the left will take you to the age discrimination cases archive, classified according to the main issue(s) in each case.

Please contact us with any relevant or interesting age discrimination cases of which you are aware.

Gay v Sophos Plc (EAT decision)

16 September 2011

Subjects Redundancy; Burden of proof; Dismissal; Direct Discrimination

Source (Lewis Silkin LLP)

An employee who was unfairly dismissed, had not been subjected to age discrimination.

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Reinhard Prigge, Michael Fromm and Volker Lambach v Deutsche Lufthansa AG (ECJ decision)

13 September 2011

Subjects Justification; Retirement; International case

Source (Lewis Silkin LLP)

The ECJ has held that a collective agreement prohibiting airline pilots from working after the age of 60 is incompatible with EU law and constitutes age discrimination.

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Hennigs v Eisenbahn-Bundesamt and Land Berlin v Mai (CJEU decisions)

08 September 2011

Subjects Justification; Pay and benefits; International case

Source (Lewis Silkin LLP)

In these joined decisions, the CJEU has held that a term in a collective agreement which provides that the pay of a public sector employee is determined by reference to their age is unlawful.

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