Age Discrimination and Employment Qualifications
6th November 2008
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that West Yorkshire police force did not discriminate against a 61 year old employee by requiring him to obtain a law degree in order that he could qualify for the highest available pay award. This was held to be the case even although the police officer concerned could not have obtained the degree before he retired.
The EAT applied the reasoning that a law degree was not required only of those employees over a certain age and also that there was no reason for assuming that it would be more difficult for an older person to obtain the qualification rather than a younger person. In essence, the requirement for a law degree was applied to all staff, young and old and did not have a disproportionate impact on one particular age group. This was therefore described as a universal barrier rather than a barrier related to age and did not constitute either direct or indirect age discrimination.
The EAT noted that where an employer has a universal benefits practice such as paying an across the board pay rise, that will always benefit the younger person who will inevitably have the benefit for a longer period of time. That was described as being the human condition rather than an example of age discrimination.
Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police v Homer [2008] UKEAT 0191/08
For more information, please contact:
Glasgow: Paul Brown or Michael McLaughlin - tel: 0141 228 8000
Edinburgh: Alan Strain - tel: 0131 226 5541
The information contained in this article is given for general information only and does not constitute legal advice on any specific matter.