A taxi driver/controller won his claim for direct age discrimination after being told, three years before his retirement date, that he had become “part of the furniture” but was “too old to work here”.
Facts
Mr Khan was employed as a driver from September 2007 by Roadrunners, a taxi company. From the beginning of 2015, he also worked in the office as a controller and occasionally a telephonist for four shifts a week. In 2017 Roadrunners took over Belfry Cars, which brought the number of controllers up to around seven in total.
In July 2017, Mr Khan was asked to go the Belfry Cars office for a meeting, where he was reportedly told by a senior manager: “You’ve become part of the furniture, but you’re too old to work here. I will pay £10 of £20 every month into your bank account every month for two years, or I can give you a package.” Mr Khan claimed that the conversation lasted only a few minutes and he presumed that he had been fired.
Mr Khan brought a claim of direct age discrimination, asserting that he had been dismissed because of his age as his state retirement date was three years away.
Decision
The Employment Tribunal (“ET”) upheld the claim. It found that Roadrunners had concerns about Mr Khan’s to cope with the increased volume of work, other drivers were complaining about him, and there was a surplus of controllers. The ET accepted, however, that Mr Khan was told that he was “too old” and that his employment was subsequently terminated.
The ET concluded that there had been mention of Mr Khan’s age and retirement date during the meeting, and that was sufficient to enable it to conclude that the dismissal was because of his age. Roadrunners failed to show that age was not the reason for the dismissal, so the claim of direct discrimination succeeded.
The judgment is available here
Mr B Khan v Roadrunners (GB) Ltd 2302696/2017