The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has held that a compulsory retirement age of 60 for Lufthansa airline pilots, contained in a collective agreement recognised by German law, breached the discrimination provisions of the Equal Treatment Framework Directive.
Both German and international law fixes the age limit for airline pilots at 65. It was therefore found that the compulsory retirement age of 60 was not “necessary” for the protection of health within the meaning of of the Directive.
The ECJ also found that the requirement for pilots to be under 60 was not a genuine occupational requirement and that nor could it be objectively justified because, in the ECJ’s view, air safety does not constitute a legitimate aim for the purposes of justifying direct age discrimination. This finding in particular is surprising!.
For more information contact John Buchanan on 0800 046 3065
An employment tribunal has held that the dismissal of an employee, for making derogatory comments about her workplace on Facebook, was not reasonable in all the circumstances and was therefore unfair.
The comments were “relatively minor” and there was nothing to suggest that the employer’s relationship with a key client had been put at risk as a result.
The Tribunal found that employer had failed to take into account the employee’s unblemished service record and other mitigating circumstances.
This case is not particularly helpful for employers considering the rise in use of Facebook and the growing number of issues this poses for employee relations.
For more information contact John Buchanan on 0800 046 3065
Acas has recently published its annual report for the year ending 31 March 2011, providing an overview of dispute resolution in Britain that is conducted via Acas. As usual, unfair dismissal was the most prevalent claim referred by employment tribunals. However, the overall number of tribunal cases referred to Acas for conciliation fell by 15% to just less than 75,000.
However, the pre-claim conciliation (PCC) service introduced in 2009 has significantly increased in popularity, with the number of referrals rising by almost 80%, from just less than 10,000 in 2009-2010 to nearly 18,000 in 2010-2011. The PCC success rate also increased from 70% to 74%, meaning that over 13,000 cases were settled without proceedings being issued.
For more information contact John Buchanan on 0800 046 3065.
