Facts

Mr Ayodele worked as a kitchen porter for Compass Group plc (“Compass”) and was retired upon reaching his 65th birthday. He made a request to work beyond 65, but this was refused. He brought a claim of unfair dismissal and age discrimination.

Compass operated a policy of retirement at 65, with no exceptions. The policy also stated that Compass has a duty to consider any requests to work beyond the retirement date, but did not provide any guidance on how the consideration should be carried out. Requests were therefore considered, but the process was widely accepted to be a sham.

Decision

The Tribunal considered the retirement provisions of the Age Regulations (available here) and found that Compass’s actions were not in accordance with the spirit of the legislation. Though the ET accepted that the Regulations did not expressly require a reasoned decision to be provided, they commented that it was implicit that any statutory obligations should be performed in good faith and genuinely.

The ET upheld Mr Ayodele’s claim and awarded him £16,173.46.

The judgment is available here.

Mr KA Ayodele -v- Compass Group plc, 7 June 2010, Case Number: 2201135/2008