'Felt punished' | Lidl worker 'marked down' for lack of degree during redundancy process

Lidl unfairly dismissed a long-serving employee after applying redundancy selection criteria that unlawfully disadvantaged older staff, an employment tribunal has ruled. 

Mr Wayne Norman, who was 63 at the time of his dismissal in 2023, was awarded more than £46,000 in compensation after succeeding in claims for unfair dismissal and indirect age discrimination, though other allegations of direct discrimination and harassment failed.

Qualification requirement found to be discriminatory

The tribunal found that the supermarket’s use of a requirement for a degree or construction qualification as part of its redundancy scoring matrix constituted indirect age discrimination. 

The evidence showed that employees in Mr Norman’s age group were significantly less likely to hold degree-level qualifications than younger colleagues - a fact the tribunal noted was widely accepted.