LRD guides and handbook July 2020

Law at work 2020 - the trade union guide to employment law

Chapter 11

Age

[ch 11: page 423]

Age discrimination in redundancy selection can be lawful, but only if it can be objectively justified as a necessary and proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim (see also Chapter 7). Reps should challenge the choice of age-related selection criteria and ask the employer to justify their use, with specific evidence-based reasons rather than generalisations.An age discriminatory solution is more likely to be judged as proportionate if it follows proper consultation with a recognised union (HM Land Registry v Benson [2011] UKEAT/0197/11).