Personal service companies
[ch 3: page 32]In some circumstances, a personal service company (PSC) can claim discrimination based on the protected characteristic of the person who is behind the company. In EAD Solicitors LLP v Abrams [2015] UKEAT/0054/15/DM, the EAT ruled that a PSC could bring its own claim for age discrimination on the basis that it suffered from less favourable treatment due to the individual’s protected characteristic (age):
Mr Abrams, aged 62, was a member of a limited liability partnership at the solicitors’ firm where he worked. For tax reasons, he set up a personal service company (PSC) on approaching retirement. Abrams was the sole director of the PSC, which took his place in the partnership. Abrams had agreed to retire on reaching the firm’s retirement age but when this date arrived, he refused to withdraw his PSC from the partnership because he wanted to carry on working. He brought a claim, through his PSC, for age discrimination. Making new law, the EAT ruled that Abrams’ PSC could bring a claim for age discrimination against the partnership because of the detriment suffered by the PSC (being forced to leave the partnership) based on Abrams’ protected characteristic (age). Being a corporation is no bar to bringing a claim for direct discrimination, said the EAT.
EAD Solicitors LLP v Abrams [2015] UKEAT/0054/15/DM