Dons win case against Oxford after being made to retire at 68

Four professors suffered age discrimination when they lost their jobs at the peaks of their careers

OXFORD University was wrong to force academics to retire because they turned 68, an employment tribunal has found.

Four professors who brought a claim against the university lost their jobs because of its retirement policy.

The employment tribunal, however, found that the university’s enforced retirement age cannot be justified under the Equality Act.

The tribunal found that the policy “means that an individual is dismissed on attainment of a particular age. That is, on the face of it, about the most extreme discriminatory impact possible in the realms of employment,” it stated.

The claimants included Philip Candelas, former Rouse Ball Chair of mathematical physics; Duncan Snidal, a former professor in international relations; Bent Flyvbjerg, a former professor in the Said Business School and Nicholas Field-johnson, former head of development for the department of continuing education, Times Higher Education reported.

They said they were dismissed at the peaks of their careers, when they still had much to offer the university and the option of becoming an emeritus professor or similar was “not comparable to their previous employment”, according to the education news website.

Oxford University is reviewing the tribunal ruling and could appeal. The university’s retirement policy, known as the “Employer Justified Retirement Age”, was first introduced in 2011, after the default retirement age was abolished in the UK.

Since then, UK employers have not been able to force workers to retire unless they can objectively justify it.

One of the stated aims of the policy is to promote “equality and diversity, noting that recent recruits are more diverse than the composition of the existing workforce, especially among the older age groups”.

However, the tribunal found that policy’s contribution to promoting equality and diversity is “very limited”.

Oxford also said that the policy was designed to create vacancies. However, the tribunal found that the university had not made any attempt to measure the impact of the policy on vacancy creation.

Simon Henthorn, partner and head of education at the law firm Doyle Clayton, which advised three of the professors, said: “In our experience it is difficult for employers to lawfully retire employees. This was certainly the case in this matter, and we are delighted that the employment tribunal has ruled in the professors’ favour.”

Under Oxford’s existing retirement policy, academics can apply to extend their employment at the age of 68, but only if they meet certain criteria, including in most cases relinquishing their existing role and being able to fully fund their continuing employment.