Palmer v RBS
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (“EAT”) has held it was not age discrimination to not allow an employee to change her choice of voluntary redundancy to redeployment. She had hoped that the redeployment exercise would take her from age 49 to 50, at which point she could choose the more favourable option of voluntary retirement.
The Claimant was placed at risk of redundancy with a number of other employees. They were all given the option of choosing voluntary redundancy or redeployment. Those over 55 were offered an additional option to take voluntary early retirement. The Respondent subsequently introduced the option of voluntary early retirement for those under 55 but over 50. The Claimant, aged 49, wanted to change her choice from redundancy to redeployment on the basis that this process would take time, during which she would reach the age of 50 and thereafter be entitled to elect early retirement. The Claimant brought a claim on the basis that the Respondent’s failure to allow her to change her choice amounted to age discrimination.
The EAT agreed with the employment tribunal that the Claimant had not established less favourable treatment. There was a material difference between the Claimant and the comparator group: the Claimant could not claim early retirement at her projected date of dismissal whereas the comparators could. The prevention of employees below the age of 50 being given the option of early retirement was a result of the Finance Act 2004. The Claimant’s treatment was held to be lawful age discrimination.
In Practice
The Claimant’s case was undone by the fact that she tried to change her mind after she had already said she would take redundancy, due to the employer changing the age for retirement from 55 to 50. She was still only 49 at this point and therefore her case was bound to fail. Paul Burton, Employment Associate says, "This is more evidence that age discrimination is probably the most difficult of the protected characteristics to succeed with a claim. It is also the only one in which direct discrimination can be objectively justified by an employer."
At Frettens, all of our solicitors offer a free initial meeting or chat on the phone to answer your questions. If this article raises issues for you or your business, please call us on 01202 499255 and Kate or Paul will be happy to discuss it with you.
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