26 January 2010 #Employment
The ECJ has held that a German law which discounts employment before the age of 25 when calculating statutory notice periods is age discriminatory (Kucukdeveci v Swedex (2010)). The ECJ also confirmed that non-discrimination on the grounds of age is a general principle of equal treatment in EU law. National courts should, if need be, disapply any principles of national law that are contrary to this principle.
This decision reduces the ability of private-sector employers to be able to rely on defences under UK legislation, if these are contrary to such general principles of EU law. Moreover, could it pave the way for a successful challenge to the UK`s calculation of basic awards for unfair dismissal and redundancy, based on age during each year of service? This is a possibility, although the UK Government has managed to justify this in the past.