Age discrimination was justified

In Woodcock v Cumbria Primary Care Trust [EAT/0489/09], Mr Woodcock was entitled to an enhanced retirement pension (ERP) on his 50th birthday.  The cost of providing an ERP to Mr Woodcock was considerably higher than the cost of making him redundant.

Cumbria Primary Care Trust (CPCT) gave a redundancy dismissal notice (RDN) to Mr Woodcock - before the first consultation meeting had taken place – to ensure that the notice expired before his 50th birthday. The duration of the RDN was one year.

Mr Woodcock claimed that the timing of the RDN was due to his age - and therefore - he was a victim of unlawful age discrimination. The EAT disagreed.

The employment tribunal had found that the age discrimination had been justified on the grounds of cost and other factors.  Mr Woodcock was at risk of redundancy when he was 48 years old. The chance that he would be employed by CPCT on his 50th birthday only arose – because he was employed for almost a year after his job had disappeared – followed by the one-year RDN.

Mr Woodcock had no legitimate expectation when his job disappeared – that he would be employed by CPCT on his 50th birthday – if he did not find any suitable alternative employment.

The EAT also expressed doubt as to whether para. 72 of Cross v British Airways [EAT/0572/04] correctly stated that discrimination could not be justified “solely on considerations of cost”.