Terms and conditions

It is unlawful to discriminate over employment terms and conditions because of a protected characteristic with the following exceptions:

National Minimum Wage: The EA 10 allows employers to pay young workers according to the age-related pay bands set out in the National Minimum Wage Regulations 1999 without facing a claim for age discrimination. See Chapter 4 for information about the National Minimum Wage.

Service related benefits: The EA 10 contains an exception for length of service related benefits, to prevent claims for age discrimination:

• where the length of service to trigger the benefit is five years or less, the employer is exempt from a claim for age discrimination;

• where the length of service exceeds five years, the employer can justify the benefit by showing a reasonable belief that the scheme fulfils a business need. This could include encouraging motivation or loyalty, or rewarding experience.

Enhanced redundancy payments: It is not age discrimination to provide an enhanced redundancy payment scheme, as long as it mirrors the statutory scheme for redundancy pay. For more information, see Chapter 11: Redundancy, page 352.

Other exceptions: The EA 10 contains other exceptions relating to benefits based on marital status and civil partnership, non-contractual maternity benefits, personal pensions and childcare benefits.