Ageist Job Ads

A serial claimant is believed to have made thousands of pounds by issuing ageism claims against businesses for their job advertisements.

The 54-year-old from Bristol has filed claims against at least 60 companies over three years because their postings use the terms "school leaver" and "recent graduate", without actually applying for the jobs in question.

Using the Government's tribunal service website, he lodged age discrimination claims against businesses and recruitment agencies all over Britain.

He would then email the firms and threaten to take them to an employment tribunal unless they paid him a settlement of up to £3500.

In order to encourage companies to settle out of court, he would choose to hold the tribunals as far away from where the business was based as possible.

Although his claims were consistently struck out due to being "misconceived", he ignored orders from the court to pay costs, leaving the firms with legal bills of around £9000.

"Employers are having to become increasingly aware of the legal obligations they must adhere to regarding recruitment and selection processes such as advertising, candidate verification, short-listing and interview procedures. Getting the recruitment process wrong can be costly, as the case above clearly outlines. Employers need to protect themselves from the beginning of the recruitment process to ensure they are being fair and non discriminatory" says Andrea O'Hare, Head of Personnel & Employment Law at Citation.

Lawyers are now lobbying the Ministry of Justice to review the online tribunal system, which allows claims to be lodged for free and with minimal evidence to back them up.

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