Judges win claim over pension changes

16 January 2017

Central London Employment Tribunal has upheld a claim by 210 judges that they suffered age, race or sex discrimination.

Six High Court judges (including Sir Rabinder Singh, Dame Lucy Theis and former head of chambers Sir Roderick Newton) plus 204 others have had their claim for unfair treatment by the Lord Chancellor and the Ministry of Justice upheld by Employment Judge Stuart Williams in a reserved judgment following a seven day hearing. The MoJ had required younger judges to leave the traditional, more generous, judicial pension scheme in April 2015, while allowing older judges to remain within it. That discrimination could not be justified, the tribunal judge concluded.

“The respondents have failed to adduce any evidence of disadvantage suffered by the fully protected and the taper-protected groups of judges which called for redress, or any social policy objective which was served by treating those groups more favourably and the claimant group less favourably.”

The judges alleged that they were discriminated against on the basis of age following the 2012 introduction of new judicial pensions that required employee contributions. Theis and Singh additionally claim gender and race discrimination respectively.

See the BBC report here
and the Guardian article here

For the full judgment click here.

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