Discrimination

Discrimination

Discrimination with a limited company as the victim

A fascinating development in terms of the Equality Act has been published by the Appeal Tribunal.

In short, a partner gave up his partnership and instead made a limited company a partner in the partnership. He did this for tax reasons, supplying his services through the limited company. In short, the limited company became a partner.

When he was 62, the partnership tried to retire him by ejecting the limited company and he brought a claim through the limited company for age discrimination.

The partnership argued that they could not discriminate against a limited company. The Tribunal disagreed. So, it is possible to discriminate against a limited company because of the protected characteristic of one of its main shareholders/directors.

The implications of this could significant, not only for people supplying their services through a vehicle such as a limited company, but also where companies fail to get contracts or engagement because of a protected characteristic such as race, gender, age or disability.

Read the case for yourself at the following link:

http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2015/0054_15_0506.html

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