Court of Appeal success for judges and firefighters

Andrew Short QC, Lydia Seymour and Naomi Ling have been successful in the Court of Appeal in the claims of more than 200 judges and 6000 firefighters for age discrimination, equal pay and race discrimination.

The Court of Appeal held that transitional protections that sheltered older judges and firefighters from the significant reductions in pensions entitlements which the claimants suffered as a result of the public sector pensions changes in 2015, were unlawfully discriminatory.

It made findings on the correct approach to take to the exercise of objective justification where the state has a legitimate interest in the issue. It also held that the desire to protect older judges/firefighters when they would have been least affected by the 2015 changes was ‘irrational’ and that the absence of evidence supporting this aim meant that there was no basis on which it could have been found to be legitimate.

The Court of Appeal also found that the age protection was indirectly discriminatory on the grounds of sex and race and gave guidance on the application of the Supreme Court judgments of Essop and Naeem.

Permission to appeal has not been granted.

The full judgment is available to read here.

News 20 Dec, 2018