BBC ageist but not sexist
Over the past few years, the BBC has been at the centre of a number of rows over their alleged discrimination of older presenters. Moira Stuart, Selena Scott (who sued TV channel Five last year for age discrimination, reaching an out of court settlement) have both been involved and now Miriam O’Reilly, the Countryfile presenter, successfully sued the BBC for age discrimination (her sex discrimination claim failed). Miriam O’Reilly was taken off Countryfile because the BBC wanted to appeal to a younger audience, they said.
The BBC tried to argue that because Ms O’Reilly had presented her claim that she was discriminated against as an older woman, that was a claim for combined discrimination which does not exist in current legislation. The Tribunal did not buy that at all and said that it was clear that both age and sex were elements that could be present at the same time, without there being a need for a separate law outlawing combined discrimination.
Legally speaking this judgment is not unusual, but it does push age discrimination into the spotlight. It is a characteristic that can apply to all age groups in a workforce depending on the circumstances. An employee can claim that he or she was not promoted/was selected for redundancy because they are too old or too young – they just need to pick their comparator.
Direct discrimination on the grounds of age is the only form of discrimination that can be justified, but in the BBC case, the tribunal found that the discrimination against O'Reilly was not justified. The tribunal did not accept that there was enough evidence that choosing younger presenters would achieve the BBC’s (legitimate) aim of appealing to younger viewers.
Our advice is that it’s all about the documents. An employer must make a good note of how it reaches its decision, at the time that it makes that decision. The BBC was criticised for a lack of documentation about its decision-making process and its failure to apply a formal procedure.
Created on 4 February 2011