Labour Research April 2001

Law Matters

Discriminatory retirement policies

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has allowed a claim over discriminatory retirement ages to be heard at an employment tribunal even though the women pursuing the claim retired many years earlier. The women were denied the right to work until 65, unlike their male colleagues.

The EAT said that the women should not be denied the right to pursue their claim just because circumstances combined to make them unaware of the right to complain until years later.

Newnham v Transco 126/00