{"id":28310,"date":"2020-01-03T01:41:15","date_gmt":"2020-01-03T01:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.englishforums.com\/news\/?p=28310"},"modified":"2020-01-03T01:41:15","modified_gmt":"2020-01-03T01:41:15","slug":"physics-professor-wins-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/physics-professor-wins-discrimination\/","title":{"rendered":"Physics professor wins age discrimination lawsuit against Oxford"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Oxford University physics professor forced to quit before his 70th birthday has won a landmark age discrimination battle against the university.<\/strong>
\nAn employment tribunal ruled that the physics professor, Paul Ewart was unfairly and discriminately dismissed on the grounds of age when his contract was not renewed in September 2017.
\nNotably, Oxford University<\/a> current policy introduced in 2011 states that staff in senior grades must retire months before they turn 69.<\/strong>
\nProfessor Paul Ewart, the university\u2019s former head of atomic and laser physics, spoke afterward of his relief and delight at winning the case.
\nThe physics professor from Northern Ireland explained he was delighted because other colleagues would not be made to retire in the middle of meaningful work.
\nHe stated:<\/p>\n

It has never been a matter of money, it’s a matter of allowing people the dignity of continuing employment and providing worthwhile work in their life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He noted he would be re-employed by the university and work with bosses to avoid further age-related disputes.<\/p>\n

Oxford reaction to the physics professor victory<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Oxford<\/a> University is reportedly considering the options of an appeal of the case.
\nThe legal victory will put pressure on the university to overturn its controversial policy that allows them to dismiss academics at the age of 69.<\/strong>
\nThe university introduced the Employer Justified Retirement Age policy (EJRA) in 2011 in a bid to bring younger and more diverse staff into posts. In 2017 it changed the age from 67 to 69.
\nThe physics professor gave the tribunal statistical evidence revealing that the policy could only help create a small number of vacancies.
\nIn its judgment, the tribunal reading stated that the EJRA was highly discriminatory, and it was hard to think of a more severe discriminatory impact. The tribunal also said the university had failed to justify its policy.<\/strong>
\nDiscriminating against anyone at work because of protected characteristics, such as age, is illegal under the Equality Act 2010.<\/p>\n

Others who challenged the discriminating policy<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Oxford physics professor was the second staff to challenge the university\u2019s retirement policy.
\nProfessor John Pitcher, who taught English at St John\u2019s College in Oxford, claimed that the university\u2019s EJRA policy amounted to age discrimination, but he lost the case.<\/strong>
\nPitcher, a leading Shakespeare scholar and fellow at St John\u2019s College<\/a> at Oxford sued the College and university for age discrimination and unfair dismissal, claiming loss of earnings of \u00a3100,000.
\nJudge Bedeau dismissed both claims.
\nHe said the case exemplifies the \u201cmuch-vexed question\u201d for employers of how to create opportunities \u201cfor the advancement of those in its workforce from different backgrounds to achieve their full potential\u201d while at the same balancing the needs and interests of those in senior positions who desire to remain employed.
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Oxford University physics professor forced to quit before his 70th birthday has won a landmark age discrimination battle against the university. An employment tribunal ruled that the physics professor, Paul Ewart was unfairly and discriminately dismissed on the grounds of age when his contract was not renewed in September 2017. Notably, Oxford University current […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":28311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28310"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}