Executive labelled ‘old fossil’ wins age discrimination case

A SENIOR executive at a FTSE 250 company who was previously told by his younger boss he was an “old fossil” who “did not know how to manage millennials” has won an age discrimination case.

Glenn Cowie was 58 when he was told he would be dismissed from his role as a divisional president at global engineering company Vesuvius after almost 40 years.

This was just 18 months after CEO Patrick Andre called the £300,000 a year senior manager an “old fossil” in the middle of a meeting with other executives, an employment tribunal heard.

Mr Cowie, who accused the company of having an “institutional and deep prejudice against older employees”, won claims of age discrimination, victimisation and unfair dismissal.

He has been awarded £34,407 - and will be awarded further compensation at a later date.

The tribunal, held in central London, heard Mr Cowie started working for Vesuvius in 1981. In 2014 he was promoted to global business unit president of Foundry Industries, a division of the company.

The hearing was told that in September 2017 Mr Andre was appointed CEO of Vesuvius, having previously been Mr Cowie’s immediate peer.

The tribunal heard that Mr Cowie’s salary was raised to more than £300,000 in December that year, although his “overall remuneration package was significantly more valuable”.

In February 2018, the hearing was told, at a meeting of the company’s executives Mr Andre told Mr Cowie he was “an old fossil who doesn’t know how to manage millennials”. Mr Cowie said he remembered the comment as “it was so out of the blue and inappropriate”.

In the tribunal’s judgment, Employment Judge Adkin said Mr Andre’s comments constituted “unwanted conduct”.

He added: “We find it created an intimidating and hostile environment for [Mr Cowie] … this was directed at [him] personally.”

The tribunal heard Mr Andre decided to sack Mr Cowie in February 2019, but he did not discuss this decision with him until the August, when he told Mr Cowie “it’s not working” and his employment would be terminated.

The tribunal heard Mr Cowie was 58 at the time whereas his replacement, Karena Cancilleri, was 51 years old, which Vesuvius argued showed that the under-45 policy was a suggestion rather than a rule.