Being forced into retirement?

[Aaron1985]

My uncle is fast approaching retirement age and he works as a domestic at a hospital in the Newcastle area and recently they've had an alteration of hours/shift pattern so a few people have been moved around. He had worked on the same ward for nearly 10 years and after the reshuffle he was the only person who was never given a fixed-ward. Everyone else either has their original ward or are now split between two set-wards.

 

My uncle wasn't given any set ward, despite the fact people far less experience were including the ward my uncle worked on all this time. Since the chances that took hold a few weeks ago he's been having to go into the office and wait to be dispatched to various parts of the hospital and has mainly been cleaning the toilets and other general ad-hoc cleaning duties and generally treated like a spare part now.

 

He complained about not getting a ward when everyone else has but was given short shrift. Now he has been told that if he wishes to stay in the job he has to relocate to an out-of-town office site where he will be away from his long-term work place and work colleagues.

 

Some of us have suggested that as he approaches retirement age in August that they're doing this to try and encourage him to retire sooner than he would have liked as I know he had intended to work on for a while longer yet and I was just wondering whether or not this had any of the hallmarks of an actionable age discrimination case. He's lost his ward, he's lost having any type of consistent working environment (he's still at the hospital but was never employed as someone who goes here there and everywhere and nobody else is in that position) and now he's being told he'll have to relocate. It all seems unfair to me but of course just because something is unfair doesn't make it actionable, so I'm after advice.

 

Thanks.

[renegadeimp]

Whats his contract say about being moved to various duties?

[Aaron1985]

Whats his contract say about being moved to various duties?

 

Honestly at this stage Ive no idea

[rebel11]

Hi Aaron1985

 

Is he in a Union? If so what have they said?

 

This is informative, have a read, it's dated 2010:-

 

http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/Old_Guidance/PDFS/Employers/6_employers_dismissal__redundancy__retirement.pdf

[renegadeimp]

Find out what the contract says about being moved around to various jobs. A lot of contracts will state that the employer reserves the right to move you as and when needed. Although in your case, you could be able to show possible discrimination. You would need specialist advice though such as from a experienced union rep.