A Lidl employee was found to be unfairly dismissed when he was ‘marked down’ for not having a degree or qualification during a redundancy process.
Wayne Norman worked as a senior construction consultant for the supermarket chain in Doncaster for almost 23 years before being made redundant in March 2023, aged 63 years old.
Mr Norman was first informed of the proposed redundancies during a meeting in January 2023 when he discovered he was among three construction consultants up for redundancy, the other two both in their 30’s, with only one role available as part of the restructure.
The tribunal heard how Mr Norman met with his line manager after learning one of the consultants had been successful in securing the job. Mr Norman was then told that he had been ‘marked down for not having relevant construction qualifications in that you do not have a construction degree’.
The tribunal accepted Mr Norman’s argument that those in their 60’s are ‘less likely’ to have a degree than those in their 30’s and ruled that the inclusion of having a degree or construction qualification as part of the redundancy selection criteria amounted to indirect age discrimination.
During his time at Lidl, Mr Norman had got on well with colleagues and felt they were ‘very much part of a family’, the tribunal heard. The Employment Judge said Mr Norman had felt ‘discredited’ because he did not have a degree and ‘punished’ for the fact he had grown up on a Welsh council estate and had not had the opportunity to attend university. The judge also went on to say Mr Norman had suffered some ‘clear psychological damage’ and ‘the impact on his family life had been extreme and at one point he had had suicidal ideations’.
The tribunal ordered Lidl to pay Mr Norman £46,280.63 in compensation for unfair dismissal and a further £4,646.15 for injury of feelings because of indirect age discrimination. However, the Tribunal reduced the award for unfair dismissal by 50% to reflect the chance that Mr Noman would have been fairly dismissed in any event.
Mr Norman’s further complaint of direct age discrimination, including an allegation that a colleague had harassed him by referring to him as ‘grandad,’ failed as the tribunal accepted that he had been selected for redundancy based on an assessment of his abilities unrelated to age.
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