Council ‘did discriminate over job applicant’s age’

A 67-YEAR-OLD man turned down for a park keeper’s job with a South Wales council was a victim of age discrimination, a judge has ruled.

David James drove away from his interview with Coedffranc Community Council “with a growing sense of injustice”, an employment tribunal heard. And he complained with him not getting the job.

But employment judge Laura Howden-evans has accepted Mr James’s account and ruled the council guilty of age discrimination.

Mr James was a caretaker at Neath College for 10 years and he served as a prison officer for 11 years before that. After the council placed a job advert in September last year, he was one of 13 applicants for the park attendant’s post, which paid £8.18 an hour.

The park keeper the council wanted to replace had retired, aged 67, and Mr James was one of the two strongest candidates.

Mr James told the tribunal he thought his interview “was going well” until a member of the panel made “age-related comments”.

“He clearly described the change in atmosphere and his growing sense of injustice,” said the judge, who found that Mr James’s age “certainly was a factor” in him being turned down for the job.

His advancing years “did affect the overall decision”, and the judge concluded: “We cannot say the decision had nothing to do with his age.”

The ruling opened the way for Mr James to seek compensation, but the judge said he and the council had been “able to agree” terms in the light of her decision. Those terms were not revealed.