What Is Age Discrimination?

Age discrimination is when an employee is unfairly placed at a disadvantage because of their age. This discrimination can happen to anyone regardless of their age, but it is most common in the elderly and young. Age discrimination has been illegal in the UK since 2006, and age is one of the protected parties in The Equality Act (2010).

What Are the Different Types of Age Discrimination?

There are four main types of age discrimination. These are direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation.

Direct discrimination is treating a protected person less favourably than someone who doesn’t have the protected characteristic. An example of this is not hiring a person who is the best candidate for a role based on their age.

Indirect discrimination happens when a company puts in a policy that has more impact on someone with a protected characteristic than others that don’t have the same characteristic, and this policy cannot be objectively justified. An example of this is if a company puts in a policy that an employee must have at least 10 years service before they are eligible to apply for a promotion, it therefore means that younger people can’t apply for the role.

Harassment is unwanted conduct that relates to a relevant protected characteristic which has the purpose or effect of violating an individual’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that individual. An example of this is undermining an employee because they are visibly older than everyone else at the company.

Victimisation is treating a person less favourably because they've made or supported a complaint, or raised a grievance under the Equality Act (2010), or the employer thinks that they’ve made a complaint. An example of this is an employer cancelling a training course for an employee because that employee has made a complaint under The Equality Act (2010).

How Age Discrimination Might Affect You As A Senior Employee

In many companies, employees spend time working their way up to more senior positions, so theoretically, these companies shouldn’t discriminate against their employees based on their age. However, unfortunately, age discrimination is still fairly common and widespread. Age discrimination also happens at various stages of the application process, and when considering promotions, bonuses, and company redundancies. 

Application Process

During the application process, an employer generally must not ask for a candidate's age unless it is relevant to the job or administration of the recruitment. This can help avoid bias or discrimination against an applicant because they are deemed too old or too young for a position.

Interview Stage

Generally, an employer should not be influenced by an applicant’s age when interviewing for a role. This is even more important for a senior role, as their age may not be an indicator of their experience. This is especially true of younger candidates. In terms of older people, an interviewer should not dismiss them for a role because of their age. 

Another way that the interview stage may discriminate against someone based on their age is assuming that an older person wouldn’t be able to use any technology that the company uses.

Promotions and Bonuses

The most common form of age discrimination that concerns promotions and bonuses is when someone is denied a promotion based on their age. Another way this age discrimination happens is when people working directly under an employee are promoted instead of them because they are younger. In many companies, promotions can happen based on experience, so it’s a common misconception that older people are treated more favourably.

An employer must never base their promotion decisions on someone’s age, instead they should focus on the person’s ability to do the role.

Company Redundancies

During company redundancies, older employees may be considered first if an employer is discriminating against them based on their age. When considering employees to be made redundant, an employer must never take their age into consideration, especially in the case of how close they are to retirement age, or pressure an older employee to take a voluntary early redundancy. 

How You Can Deal With Age Discrimination

The best method for starting an age discrimination case under THe Equality Act (2010) is to seek legal assistance from a third party. This is because a third party can help you to get the compensation you deserve when facing age discrimination, including any financial losses.

You can also try and bring a case yourself, but without the right legal assistance, you may face difficult battles, which can cause needless stress on top of the stress you may already be feeling. 

How Cavendish Employment Law Can Help With Age Discrimination At Work

At Cavendish Employment Law, we are employment law experts that can help you with your age discrimination complaints. We can advise you on your legal rights, gather evidence to support your claim, represent you in negotiations and advise you on settlement agreement terms. 

We’re one of the City’s top employment law specialists, with a well-deserved reputation for playing hardball for the individuals that seek our assistance. We’re experts in senior employee discrimination and are renowned for the results we get for our clients.

Get in touch with us to discuss your potential age discrimination case today.