UK: Voluntary redundancy - excluding employee eligible for early retirement is prima facie age discrimination

The EAT has confirmed that excluding an employee who is eligible for early retirement from voluntary redundancy, due to the higher severance costs, is prima facie discrimination on grounds of age. The employer could not argue that the reason, severance cost, was something other than age, as the additional cost was directly referable to age. Therefore the employee's exclusion was age discrimination unless it could be objectively justified. (Donkor v Royal Bank of Scotland)