Redundancy - Length of service may be taken into account
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The Court of Appeal (CA) has upheld the decision of the High Court that the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 do not prevent companies taking length of service into account when considering making redundancies of older workers.
Since the introduction of Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 that outlaws direct and indirect discrimination on grounds of age it has been questioned whether taking length of service into account in redundancy situations would discriminate against younger workers.
The CA decided that as long as length of service is only one of the factors considered during the redundancy process, that will be an acceptable means of balancing the fact that in the present economic climate older workers are less likely than younger workers to work again once made redundant. The CA stressed that length of service should not be the sole factor taken into account. The Unite union has welcomed the CA decision against Rolls Royce. This will protect older workers from companies that are attempting to use age discrimination legislation as a screen to remove long standing agreements designed to protect older workers.
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