Ericsson older worker cuts will be illegal under new age discrimination law

A move by telecoms firm Ericsson to offer voluntary redundancy to about 1,000 of its employees in Sweden aged between 35 and 50 would be illegal after October this year, legal experts have said.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

Email(Required)

OptOut

From time to time, we will send you emails about selected products, events and services from Personnel Today and OHW+ - but you can choose to opt-out at any time. If you do not wish to receive these emails, please tick this box.

Comments

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Δ

The company announced last week that workers aged between 35 and 50 with a minimum of six years’ service will be eligible for a voluntary redundancy package comprising 12 to 18 months’ salary, a £3,700 payout and the chance to participate in a career-change programme. It is also planning to recruit 900 new staff up to the age of 30 in the next three years.

But lawyers have warned that the move would be illegal under EU-wide age discrimination legislation, which into force in October this year.