Age

Unlike other forms of discrimination, age discrimination in redundancy selection can be lawful, provided it can be objectively justified as a necessary and proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. Age discrimination is looked at on pages 139 and 182 of Chapter 6.

Reps should challenge the use of age-related selection criteria and ask the employer to justify their use and to demonstrate precisely why they are both proportionate and necessary to meet the specific demands facing their own workplace.

A solution that is age discriminatory is more likely to be judged proportionate if:

• it has been the subject of proper consultation with a recognised union (see HM Land Registry v Benson [2011] UKEAT/0197/11); and

• all other reasonable non-discriminatory alternatives have been properly explored in consultation and eliminated.