Laying out your claim
When you are claiming age victimisation at Tribunal, you want to clearly argue that you have been treated badly because you have made a complaint about age discrimination, or have helped a colleague make a complaint about age discrimination. For example:
- An employee makes a complaint of age discrimination against their employer. As a result, they are denied promotion.
- An employer threatens to dismiss a staff member because he thinks she intends to support a colleague’s age harassment claim.
- A senior manager upholds a worker’s grievance about age harassment. As a result, they are not put forward by their director to attend an important conference on behalf of the company.
With age victimisation, your employer can be liable for the acts of its employees, as well as the employees being personally responsible.
Proving your claim
You don’t need to attach evidence to a Tribunal ET1 claim, but it’s a good idea to back up your claims by mentioning the evidence you intend to use. For age victimisation claims, people typically refer to evidence such as text messages, emails, letters, meeting notes and witness evidence.
What you can ask for in your age victimisation claim
If you’re successful in a Tribunal claim, you will be awarded a “remedy”. This mainly includes financial compensation, like loss of earnings. It can also include some non-financial remedies too.
Common remedies people ask for at Tribunal
Some of the key remedies you can ask for at Tribunal are:
- The money you have lost from being out of work, or working in a lower-paid job.
- The money that you expect to lose in the future from being out of work, or working in a lower-paid job.
- Wages that you are owed, including holiday pay and notice pay.
Discrimination-specific remedies
As well as the common remedies that you can ask for, discrimination-specific claims also have the option to include an “injury to feelings” remedy. This is compensation which you can be awarded when you have been hurt or distressed because you have been discriminated against.
Injury to feelings is generally awarded within one of three “Vento bands” depending on severity.
For example, Jen raised two grievances alleging age and race discrimination. She was later subjected to a number of detriments, and ultimately dismissed. She was awarded £19,800 plus interest for injury to feelings. She was also successful in a number of other claims, including unfair dismissal.
Real age victimisation cases you can learn from
Summary: a counter assistant at a pharmacy, who was 63 years old, complained to the director about how the younger members of staff had been mocking her for hearing loss and forgetfulness. After making this complaint, she was treated worse by the pharmacy manager, who for example was abrupt and offhand with her and over-scrutinised her work.
Total award: £15,649.13
Outcome: the counter assistant was successful in a claim for age victimisation. She was also successful in claims for discrimination arising from disability and a claim relating to her employer’s failure to provide her with terms and conditions.
Total award: £233,635.84
Outcome: Some of her claims to the Tribunal were successful, including claims that she had been victimised. The Tribunal accepted that the employer’s decision to dismiss her, and a delay in paying her final pay, were significantly influenced by the fact she’d made a Tribunal claim about age discrimination.