In Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce v Beck [EAT/0141/10], the EAT held that the tribunal was entitled to infer that the requirement for a “younger” employee amounted to unlawful age discrimination.
Mr Beck was the head of marketing at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (the bank) until he was made redundant on 8 May 2008. He was aged 42.
However, before Mr Beck was made redundant, the bank sent a person specification (PS) for his job to an employment agency. The PS stated that the person had to be a “younger, entrepreneurial profile (not a headline profile rain maker)”.
The tribunal found that the requirement for a “younger” person meant that the bank had to show that Mr Beck’s dismissal was not influenced by his age.
The tribunal rejected the bank’s explanation that the word “younger” meant “less senior”. If the PS meant to say that the bank was seeking a “less senior” person – it should have said so. The PS went through a series of drafts - but the requirement for a “younger” person remained – even though the bank’s HR executive had advised the bank that it would be inappropriate to search for a “younger” person.
Comment
Page 13 of the ACAS Code of Practice on age discrimination advises employers to avoid using words such as “young” in a person specification (or job advertisement) because such words may imply that they would prefer to employ a person of a certain age.
The advice will continue to be valid after the EHRC’s guides on the Equality Act 2010 come into force on 1 October 2010.
Today, the Government published a consultation paper about whether the legal right for time off to train:
• Should be repealed.
• Should be retained for businesses employing at least 250 employees.
• Should be extended to any business from 6 April 2011 (as intended by the Labour Government), e.g. should the extension be delayed until economic conditions improve?
The consultation period will end on 15 September 2010.
The consultation paper is available at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills website.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published seven guides on the Equality Act 2010 for employers. The guides will come into force on 1 October 2010.
The guides state that:
“This guidance applies to England, Scotland and Wales. It has been aligned with the Codes of Practice on Employment and on Equal Pay. Following this guidance should have the same effect as following the Codes. In other words, if a person or an organisation who has duties under the Equality Act 2010’s provisions on employment and other work situations does what this guidance says they must do, it may help them to avoid an adverse decision by a court in proceedings brought under the Equality Act 2010.”
The guides are available at the EHRC website.
There are also guides on the Equality Act 2010 at the Government Equalities Office website.
