Banker Age 42 Wins Age Discrimination Claim

15 April 2010

Achim Beck, a 42-year-old German banker based in London, has had his claim of age discrimination against his former employer, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), upheld by the London South Employment Tribunal (ET).

Mr Beck joined CIBC in 2007 as head of the derivatives marketing team at Managing Director level. He was on a salary plus guaranteed bonus, which together totalled £900,000 a year. Less than a year later, when the credit crunch hit the City, he and several other members of his team lost their jobs following a redundancy restructuring process. However, CIBC had simultaneously hired a firm of headhunters to find a replacement for Mr Beck. According to an internal memo, CIBC’s instructions were that they were seeking a person who fitted a ‘younger, entrepreneurial profile’, even though the bank’s head of human resources in London had described the wording as ‘inappropriate’.

When asked by the ET to explain the use of the word ‘younger’, CIBC said that it simply meant someone less experienced who ‘would not be an expensive senior figurehead’. The ET was not convinced by this explanation and found that CIBC had failed to prove that age was not a factor in its decision to dismiss Mr Beck. It held that he had been treated unfairly and that the redundancy process was a ‘sham’ used to achieve CIBC’s aim of replacing him with someone younger.

The amount of the compensation award will be assessed at a later date, unless the parties involved reach agreement without the need for a hearing.

In this case Mr Beck was able to produce evidence to support his claim that his age was a factor in his employer’s decision to replace him and his employer was unable to justify its actions.

It was extremely unwise of the employer to use age-related language when describing the selection criteria for redundancy. In 2008/2009, ETs dealt with 3,801 cases of age discrimination, compared with 2,949 cases in the year 2007/2008. The penalties for age discrimination can be severe, with no upper limit to the compensation that an ET can award.

When recruiting staff, it is important not to use words such as ‘young’, ‘mature’ or ‘dynamic’, or to specify requirements that disadvantage a particular age group. Also, specifying knowledge and skills which are not a genuine requirement of the job could constitute unlawful discrimination on the grounds of age. Avoid insisting on a fixed number of years’ experience required as this can be indirectly discriminatory. In some instances, this will be because potential candidates may have the necessary skills required for the job but be too young to have gained the qualifying length of experience, or it could be because they are of an age where they are likely to have more years’ experience than is stipulated in the advertisement. It is also advisable to target your advertising so that it reaches a variety of age groups.

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