Coming of Age

Browne Jacobson

Official statistics show that 15,336 claims which included a complaint of age discrimination were received at the Employment Tribunals between March 2020 and March 2021.

The figure is more than double the number of disability discrimination claims (the next highest discrimination claim) and is a remarkable six-fold increase on the number of age discrimination claims presented the previous year.

Whether the sharp increase is a blip caused by the over-50s having suffered the largest increase in unemployment of any age group during the pandemic, or is here to stay remains to be seen but the tension between:

our ageing population many of whom need to work into older age than was the case
changes in the labour market caused by the shift from the baby boom generation
succession planning; and
the need to recruit and retain top talent
point towards age discrimination becoming an increasing conundrum and risk for firms.