Age Discrimination at Work

Age is the only protected characteristic where different treatment can be lawful if the employer can justify it. That makes age discrimination claims different from the others, and it makes the employer's explanation the main battleground.

What is protected

Age is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, and it protects everybody. Older workers pushed out as "past it" and younger workers passed over as "not ready" are covered by the same law. There is no minimum length of service, and protection starts at recruitment.

Age groups can be broad or narrow: over 50s, under 25s, or a specific age. Comparators can be older or younger than you.

What it looks like in practice

Being selected for redundancy where the criteria favour recent qualifications or "digital natives".
Being excluded from training, promotion or development because you are "near the end" or "too junior".
Recruitment adverts seeking someone "young and dynamic", "a recent graduate" or with "no more than five years' experience".
Comments about retirement plans, energy levels, or being set in your ways, especially in appraisals.
Being pushed towards a settlement or early retirement rather than being performance managed like everyone else.
Benefits and pay structures based on length of service beyond five years, which need to be justified.

The justification defence

Direct age discrimination can be lawful if the employer shows the treatment is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. No other protected characteristic works this way.

Legitimate aims accepted by tribunals have included workforce planning, encouraging turnover to create opportunities, and health and safety. Cost alone is not a legitimate aim, though it can form part of one.

Proportionate means the treatment must actually achieve the aim and there must be no less discriminatory way of doing it. That is where most employer arguments fail: the aim is stated in the abstract and no thought was given to alternatives.

Retirement

There is no default retirement age in the UK. An employer cannot compel you to retire simply because you have reached a particular age unless it can justify a specific retirement age as a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim, which is a high hurdle outside a few occupations.

Repeated questions about "your plans" are not neutral. They are frequently the evidence that turns a later dismissal or redundancy selection into an age discrimination claim.

Building the evidence

Age discrimination is usually shown by inference rather than admission. What helps:

The comparator. Who was treated better, and how old are they?
The pattern. Who is being recruited, promoted, and made redundant, and what does the age profile of those groups look like? You can ask.
The language. Appraisals and emails referring to energy, freshness, longevity, retirement or being "old school".
The process. Departures from the employer's usual approach in your case.
A dated record, written at the time.

Remember the burden of proof shifts: prove facts from which discrimination could be inferred and the employer must then prove age played no part.

Time limits and remedies

Three months less one day from the act complained of, or the end of a continuing course of conduct, with the clock paused during ACAS early conciliation. Tribunals can extend where it is just and equitable, but it is not something to rely on.

Compensation is uncapped and includes financial loss, injury to feelings within set bands, and interest. For an older worker close to the end of a career, financial loss can be substantial, because future loss may run for years rather than months, and pension loss can dwarf the salary element.

What to do

If you are being edged out, the useful step is to get the position assessed before the redundancy consultation or performance process concludes, not after. Age claims frequently sit underneath what looks like an ordinary restructure, and they are worth a great deal more than a capped unfair dismissal claim. A free enquiry puts you in front of a specialist employment solicitor who can tell you which one you have.