A UK-based salesman has won a payout from his former employer after his boss said he didn’t want a team full of middle-aged bald men.
(Bloomberg) — A UK-based salesman has won a payout from his former employer after his boss said he didn’t want a team full of middle-aged bald men.
Mark Jones, a former sales director at Leeds-based mobile phone firm Tango Networks UK Ltd., won a claim for unfair dismissal involving direct age discrimination and harassment claims. The ruling, which was published in late January, said he was wrongfully fired from his £60,000 ($72,500) a-year role while in his 60s and awarded £71,441 in damages.
Jones accused his former manager of putting him on an unjustified performance improvement plan and dismissing him all because of his age. He said his manager’s bias was shown when he said “I don’t want a team of bald-headed 50-year-old men – I want to change the dynamics,” and he described his team as “youthful.”
Jones has a full head of hair, according to a photo of him published in Mail Online, which reported the news earlier.
UK employment tribunals are seeing a rise in the number lawsuits involving age discrimination and ageism is a growing concern for societies with advance economies as their work place grows older. A UK employment tribunal in May ruled that that calling men “bald” is a form of sex-based discrimination.
“Everything that we have set out as the basis of the claimant’s dismissal is tainted by age discrimination,” Judge Miller said in a ruling published Jan. 25.
Jones declined to comment. Tango Networks did not immediately respond to a request via email for comment.
(Updates with comment from Mark Jones in seventh paragraph)
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