An employee dismissed one day before his 65th birthday succeeded in his age discrimination claim.

Facts

Mr Plewes worked as a production operative in a pork plant. His contract said the date of retirement was the day before his 65th birthday.

Mr Plewes made a request to his employer to continue working from his 65th birthday and beyond. This was rejected and Mr Plewes was retired on the day before his 65th birthday. He was rehired some two and a half weeks later on a lower salary. Mr Plewes proceeded to issue proceedings claiming his dismissal was unfair and discriminatory on the grounds of his age.

Decision

The retirement age of Adams Pork Produce was stated in the contract to be the day before the employee’s 65th birthday: 64 years and 364 days. Therefore the mandatory retirement provisions did not apply and the employer could not rely on the Regulation 30 exemption. The employer was not able to objectively justify having a retirement age less than 65 and so Mr Plewes’s claim succeeded. He was awarded £36,000 in compensation, of which £7,500 was for injury to feelings.

The tribunal accepted that if Adams Pork Produce’s retirement age had been 65, they would have acted lawfully.

The judgment is available here

Plewes -v- Adam Pork Produce Ltd (4 Oct 2007 ET/2600842/07)