UK business braced for first age discrimination cases

Monday 30th October will be the first working day that employees will be able to submit an employment tribunal claim on the grounds of age discrimination.

Age discrimination legislation came into force on 1st October. However, statutory grievance procedures require employees who wish to bring a claim first to lodge a grievance with their employer and then wait at least 28 days before launching tribunal proceedings.

This breathing space is intended to give the parties the opportunity to resolve their differences, but employees who lodged a grievance on 1st October will nevertheless be entitled to proceed on this date even if the grievance has not yet been concluded.

Richard Linskell, employment partner at Dawsons Solicitors, said: We are not necessarily going to see a flood of claims arriving on that day, but there may be retirement-based claims at this time, where an employer has told someone they want them to retire before the age of 65.

I think the tribunal service is probably expecting a large number of claims, not necessarily in the first month, but in the first year or two.

ìIf the experience in Ireland, which has had age discrimination legislation in place since 1998, is a good indication of how things will develop in the UK, age-based claims will soon form a substantial proportion of all claims,î Linskell said.