The caution comes after a secretary won a case against her
former employer for dismissing her because she was too young.
Catherine Barker, an employment law specialist at Pinsent
Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM, said that advertising jobs
as being for people with a fixed number of years of experience
could also discriminate against the young.
"Ideally, employers should stop this, unless they think they can
objectively justify it," said Barker. "It has to be taken on a case
by case basis, but employers will have to sit down and think about
why they require that experience."
"Do they genuinely need this number of years of experience? They
should also create a paper trail to show that they have thought
about it," said Barker. "They would also ideally carry out an age
review of all policies and procedures to look for age bias."
Megan Thomas was a 19-year-old membership secretary at the Eight
Member Club in London but was dismissed after she was told that she
was not mature enough to deal with the club's members.
An employment tribunal ruled that Thomas had been discriminated
against on grounds of her age. It is thought to be the first time
that the UK's age discrimination legislation has been used to
protect a young, rather than an old, worker.
The Eight Members Club said it would appeal the ruling.
Barker said that the case would raise awareness the potential
pitfalls of age discrimination against young, as well as old,
people.
"I think as awareness of the age regulations sinks in we'll see
more of these types of claims," she said. "Regulations do cover
discrimination against people of all ages, they will cover younger
as well as older workers. Undoubtedly there is discrimination. I
think people make presumptions about younger people and their
abilities and experiences in same way as they do for older
workers."
Barker said that employers would have to review all their staff
policies to weed out discriminatory practices. This, she said,
could include advertising for staff of a fixed number of years'
experience.
"How to avoid liability generally is make sure that through your
whole employment process from recruitment to promotions to
selections for redundancy you have clear, objective criteria," she
said. "There should be a job description and a person specification
based solely on the skills required to do the job, avoiding
references to so many years' experience."
Barker said that the law allowed for recruitment based on
specific periods of experience, but that an employer would need to
satisfy strict criteria in order to avoid discrimination
claims.
"[You can do it] provided you can objectively justify that the
experience required achieves a legitmate aim and that there is a
proportionate means of fulfilling that aim," said Barker. "For
example if you're an aircraft pilot and the employer can
demonstrate that only when pilots have achieved so many hours
flying time can they fly safely unaided, then that may fulfil the
defence."
"Employers need to ask themselves is there any less
discriminatory way to achieve the same result?" said Barker.
