Age Discrimination: Being treated differently because of your age?
Age discrimination
Age is a personal characteristic that is protected under the Equality Act 2010 (EqA 2010).
Individuals have protection against discrimination and other prohibited conduct which relates to their age.
Age protection can be for a person or persons in an ‘age group’, ie who are the same age or fall within a particular range of ages.
Age discrimination and other prohibited conduct relating to age can adversely affect the young as well as the old. Someone middle age can also be protected, if they are being treated worse then another person, because of their age.
Age discrimination may happen, by direct discrimination, by indirect discrimination, or by harassment.
Age discrimination may happen, covering:
◦ recruitment
◦ training
◦ promotion
◦ pay, and terms and conditions of employment
◦ performance management
◦ redundancy
◦ retirement
◦ dismissal, and
◦ flexible working
Other considerations, are different treatment because of risks of age stereotyping, or ageist language for example.
Direct age discrimination
Direct age discrimination by one person (A) against another person (B) occurs where:
• A treats B less favourably than A treats or would treat others, and
• A does so because of (the protected characteristic of) ‘age’
With direct discrimination, there will always be a need for a comparison with how another or others would be treated, although the comparator may sometimes be hypothetical rather than real.
To constitute direct age discrimination, the offending less favourable behaviour towards the other person, must be done ‘because of’ age. The phrase ‘because of’ is wide enough to cover:
• (most obviously) situations where the behaviour is done because of the age of the victim, but also
• situations where the behaviour is done because of the age of a third party (eg the age of the victim’s partner or child); this is known as associative discrimination, and
• situations where the perpetrator thought someone (the victim or a relevant third party) possessed the relevant characteristic but in fact that was not the case. For example, if the perpetrator was prejudiced against all persons in their seventies, believed that the victim was in his seventies, and discriminated against him because of that belief, it would still be direct age discrimination even where the victim was in fact not in his seventies.
There can also be Indirect age discrimination
Unlike with direct discrimination, indirect discrimination does not involve treating workers differently. Rather, it is a type of discrimination that arises when, although the discriminator treats all workers the same, some aspect of that uniform treatment affects one group of workers adversely compared to another. In the context of age discrimination, examples might include:
• an employer specifying that all workers in a particular role must have at least fifteen years’ experience in a particular field, thereby making it effectively impossible for persons below a certain age to satisfy the criterion
• an employer specifying that all workers in a particular role must have passed GCSE maths (without allowing equivalent qualifications), making it impossible for persons above a certain age, who took ‘O’ level maths instead (ie in any year earlier than 1988, when GCSEs were first taken), to satisfy the criterion
The treatment must put (or if/when applied would put) persons who are in the same age group as the complainant at a particular disadvantage when compared with persons who are not in it.
If you believe you are being treated worse because of your age, then use the contact us option to get in touch, or simply give us a call for a free consultation. There is no obligation to sign up and speaking to us will ensure you keep informed as to whether the treatment you are experiencing is fair or wrong in law.
If you do need to bring a claim because of age discrimination, after a short case review we can usually offer a no win no fee option for you.