Welsh Lidl employee awarded £50,000 for unfair dismissal over not having a degree

8 comments

1. For the inevitable people who won’t read the article…

   This makes a lot of sense. It was indirect age discrimination because as a person in his 60s he was far less likely to have been able to go to university than the two consultants in their 30s who kept their jobs after the restructure. The normal or common route to this particular role now would involve a degree, it didn’t then.

   They should have made their decision based on performance in the role and not an arbitrary thing that hadn’t made any difference to his performance in the role.

2. My word. Your degree doesn’t count for anything once you’ve been working in a field for 10 years let alone 40+ years.

3. Pretty much 90% what you learned at uni won’t apply to the industry lol

4. Only being awarded £50k is a disgrace. Man’s old, how likely are they to find another job and as retirement is coming.

5. Yeah, that makes sense, if a degree wasn’t advertised as being required for the role in the first place, it shouldn’t have any bearing on the decision to make someone redundant or not. It’s like sacking a neurosurgeon for not having their HGV1 licence. Totally nonsensical.

6. As someone younger (30s) who never got a degree, I find the focus on them in jobs that don’t really need them frustrating.

   For a few reasons I had a pretty fucked up childhood and on paper only have 4 years of primary school education and no secondary. I’ve tried going back to education a few times but because of my pretty bad dyslexia and the stress I feel in educational environments I just can’t get the hang of it.

   When I left school I don’t think anyone even believed I’d make it to semi-literate and the only maths I could do was basic addition and subtraction.

   The part that frustrates me is I’m not stupid, on my dyslexia assessment I’m intelligent enough to count as gifted in several areas, I’ve taught myself maths to a passable level and reading and writing to a high level, I’m a voracious reader including of classical literature and philosophy, I even wrote my own novel last year. I’m generally capable of learning outside of educational environments but because I’m unable to get my head around how they teach in education I’m permanently excluded from a huge range of jobs that in practice I’m capable of doing.

7. At that point in life, experience counts for more than a degree ever will. At that point, he will have learnt more than enough about the business to make having a degree pointless anyway. It is just needless discrimination and highlights how they are putting policy above common sense.

8. >The ruling noted that the amount awarded for unfair dismissal had been reduced by 50% to reflect the chance that the claimant would have been fairly dismissed in any event.

   >Mr Norman’s complaint of direct age discrimination failed as the tribunal accepted he had been selected for redundancy based on an assessment of his “abilities unrelated to age” and there was “no evidence” that his “likely longevity” in the role or age may affect his performance.

   Sounds like he was shit and they were looking for an excuse to get rid tbh.

Comments are closed.