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 workers according to age-related pay bands in the National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015 without a claim for age discrimination. See Chapter 4 for information about the National Minimum Wage. From 1 April 2016, a new pay band has been added, for those aged 25 and over. 


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 a benefit is five years or less, the employer is exempt from a claim for age discrimination;


• where the length of service required exceeds five years, the employer can justify the benefit by showing a reasonable belief that the scheme fulfils a business need, such as 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 pay. 


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. 


In Peninsula Business Services v Donaldson [2016] UKEAT/0249/15/DM, the EAT ruled that it is not sex discrimination for an employer to refuse to provide childcare vouchers based on a “salary sacrifice” model during maternity leave. The EAT said that HMRC guidance suggesting that vouchers funded by salary sacrifice should continue during maternity leave is wrong.