News • EHRC funds first age discrimination cases heard at the Supreme Court
From Equality South West
The Commission will use the first two age discrimination cases to be heard by the UK’s Supreme Court today (17 January 2012) to argue that an exception to the law banning age discrimination in employment is in urgent need of clarification.
Both cases seek clarity from the UK's highest court on the interpretation of the rule that allows employers to justify age discrimination if they can prove it is a 'proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim'.
Default retirement age was scrapped in April 2011, however, an employer can still force an employee to retire using if it can show that the policy is justifiable as a 'proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim'. For this reason, the Supreme Court's clarification of the test has wide implications for all retirement situations.
The full story can be found here: EHRC