Employment tribunals 'set to rise as age gap widens at work'

The widening age demographic in the workplace could lead to a rise in staff tribunal claims and grievances unless employers adapt how they manage and support staff, a leading travel employment lawyer has warned.

Travlaw partner Ami Naru said an ageing workforce, with a growing gap between the oldest and youngest members of staff, was set to cause challenges for employers.

Speaking on a panel at Travlaw’s annual Big Tent event, she said: “It’s going to mean more claims.”

Many company bosses were still unaware that the statutory default retirement age of 65 no longer existed in the UK, meaning employers cannot compulsorily retire employees simply because they have reached a certain age, she said.

She added: “A lot of employers still don’t recognise that they can’t force someone to retire at their default retirement age. Age discrimination has been on the law books since 2010. What you have to do instead is have succession planning in your business, proper performance management discussions.

“You’ve got to have those open discussions. You can’t think, ‘Oh Tom’s nearly reached 65, he’ll be off soon.’ That might not happen.”

She added that the workplace had changed significantly as a result of technology and social media and was now more weighted in favour of employee demands, with remote working a specific challenge.

She stressed: “The employee and the employer need to be on the same page, and the way you do that is through your culture.

“Businesses have to change the way they manage people, because having someone sat next to you and them learning from you is much harder if people are sat at home.”

Simon Atkinson, head of travel at Barclays Corporate Banking, agreed that adaptability was “key” and urged businesses to make sure staff of all ages were on top of technology and training.

But he conceded there were challenges in a hybrid or remote working environment. “Team harmony can be really tricky to achieve,” he said.

Zoe Powell, director of travel, hospitality and leisure at accountancy firm Xeinadin, noted anecdotally that some employees aged under 25 were reluctant to work in an office.

She pointed to reports that graduates were “18 months behind [in development]” compared with pre-Covid. “It just means we’ve got to be adaptive to help them and to give them the space to be individual,” she said.