Superdry ordered to pay £96k after failing to promote designer because she was too old to leave

Despite having 30 years’ experience and receiving brilliant performance reviews, Ms Sunderland repeatedly saw her younger, less experienced colleagues promoted above her. 

 

Ms Sunderland, who is in her fifties, said that she felt humiliated and degraded and eventually resigned. 

 

The tribunal heard that bosses had assessed Ms Sunderland as being a low ‘flight risk’ compared with her younger colleagues. The tribunal concluded that Superdry failed to promote Ms Sunderland ‘because they judged that there was little risk of her leaving the business no matter how she was treated... We find that a similarly valuable designer who was significantly younger… probably would have been promoted.’ 

 

Do you have a robust talent management system which doesn’t discriminate on age? 

 

A survey by Capita Resourcing found that the majority of over 50s had experienced some form of bias against them in the workplace. With 9.4 million UK workers over the age of 50, it’s becoming increasingly important to ensure older workers are treated fairly. 

 

Get yourself a consultant that can help you to stay the right side of the law and retain top talent