EU Law - age discrimination and market access case studies.

The first 200 words of this essay...

The first request for advice from Brenda involves a scenario in which one of her employees seeks action on the grounds of age discrimination. Having traditionally allowed two of her employees to leave early every day in order to pick their children up from school, a third employee wishes to leave early in order to visit an elderly mother. Should this be disallowed, the third employee, P, plans to invoke a defence based on the wording of the relevant secondary legislation. The EU Directive of 2006 states that discrimination on 'grounds of age' is prohibited, which P claims can encompass associated persons of the employee. However the measure that has been implemented into UK national law states that employers must not discriminate against employees 'because of their age'. Thus it would seem that the Directive would give her more rights than the UK Act, because of it's broader ambit.

If action is taken, the first test is whether the relevant provision is directly effective, that is, whether it creates both an obligation for Member States, and rights for the individual (C-26/62 NV Algemene Transport- en Expeditie Onderneming van Gend en Loos v Netherlands Inland Revenue Administration), and can