42-year-old wins ageism damagesA 42-year-old man has been awarded an undisclosed amount of damages after becoming one of the youngest people to successfully claim he was fired for being too old.
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) in London made its head of marketing Achim Beck redundant in 2008, as part of a round of dismissals designed to save costs. Yet the company sent an internal memo stating that a new marketing executive would be hired who fit a "younger, entrepreneurial profile".
According to The Telegraph newspaper, the replacement for German-born Mr Beck was 38.
CIBC claimed at the Tribunal in London that it intended the word "younger" to mean "less experienced", but the Tribunal held it could not prove Mr Beck's redundancy "was not significantly influenced by his age".
However, it accepted CIBC had included people aged over 40 in its list of potential candidates, and dismissed Mr Beck's claims of indirect and direct racial discrimination.
Unfair dismissal claims have a compensation cap of about £75,000, but there is no such monetary limit to cases of discrimination.
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