How are employers enhanced redundancy payments affected by the age discrimination legislation?
The Equality Act 2010 contains an exemption that allows enhanced employer redundancy payments linked to length of service where the provisions of the employer’s scheme mirror the provisions in the statutory redundancy scheme. The Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) decision in MacCulloch v Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) Plc provides useful guidance on this issue. The EAT held that, although in this case the employer had failed to justify the discriminatory impact on the grounds of age of its enhanced redundancy scheme, in certain circumstances it would be possible to justify a scheme that differentiated between employees on the basis of age and length of service, even where the scheme is not caught by the exemption in discrimination legislation, provided that their terms mirror the statutory redundancy provisions (see Advisory Bulletin 543). Since the introduction of the Local Government (Early Termination of Employment) (Discretionary Compensation) (England and Wales) Regulations 20
