Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Age discrimination definition

What does Age discrimination mean? In practice, age discrimination describes unfavourable treatment, criteria or conduct because of a person’s age, including perceived age or association. It commonly arises in recruitment, terms and conditions, promotion, redundancy, dismissal, pay/benefits, pensions, and access to services. It is a statutory concept. In England & Wales and Scotland, the Equality Act 2010 makes age a protected characteristic and prohibits discrimination, harassment and victimisation in work and in services. In Northern Ireland, the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 cover employment, with more limited protection in goods and services. In Ireland, the Employment Equality Acts 1998–2015 and the Equal Status Acts...

Age discrimination in employee share schemes: EqA 2010 principles, service-related exemptions, objective justification, retirement and HMRC plan issues, enforceability risks, and claims under parent company plans

Published by a LexisNexis Share Incentives expert

Practice notes

The aim of this Practice Note is to outline the principal age discrimination issues that may emerge when designing and running different kinds of employee share schemes. It covers the core rules on direct and indirect age discrimination, highlights possible exemptions and justifications, and considers particular age-related points that can arise with employee share schemes. The emphasis is on how arrangements are structured and administered, viewed through the lens of age-related risks. It does so without straying beyond the share scheme context.

Age discrimination—the basic principles

The Equality Act 2010 (EqA 2010) provides the legal framework governing age (as well as other forms of) discrimination. In essence, two types of unlawful age discrimination are relevant: direct discrimination and indirect discrimination. There are also distinct notions of harassment linked to age and victimisation connected to age discrimination; however, these are unlikely to be pertinent to employee share schemes and are therefore not addressed here.

Direct age discrimination

Direct age discrimination arises where, because of age, one person (A) treats another (B) less favourably than A treats, or would treat, others...

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Sam Whitaker

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP

Sam is an International Counsel in the London office of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. He provides the full range of employment and benefits advice on transactions and stand-alone employment matters. He has substantial experience of advising on the employment and benefits aspects of various transactions, including UK listings, share and asset acquisitions and disposals (both UK-based and multi-jurisdictional transactions), joint ventures and other transactions. He provides the full range of stand-alone employment advice including the implementation of employment and benefit arrangements for senior executives, implementing executive severance arrangements, managing UK and international redundancy exercises and related consultation requirements, the establishment of share incentive and bonus plans, employment litigation involving restrictive covenants, unfair and wrongful dismissal and discrimination issues. He also advises on compliance with regulatory requirements on remuneration, in particular the FCA/PRA’s Remuneration Codes and, at a European level, CRDV....

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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