Agency workers and age discrimination.

jb000

Hello there, wondering if anyone can advise or point me in the right direction. I am currently employed by an agency and on Friday afternoon, I was rudely and abruptly informed that the assignment I working for had terminated.

To cut a very long story short. I was about to start a grievance against the company I was assigned to as I have been subject to the most blatant instances of age discrimination. All I can assume is that someone had got wind of what I was going to do and tried to get rid of me as quickly as possible.

In a nutshell, I was assigned to a very well known company alongside 10 other people who were half my age and more. All of them received better training and support than me and were all offered contracts within the company. I was left to more or less fend for myself and was ignored and disposed of after 3 months.

My question is this, can I take an action for age discrimination against this company even though I was only assigned to them whilst employed by an agency.

Any advice would be so appreciated.

marybelle01

Did they offer you less training and support solely because of your age? Or not offer you a contract solely because of your age? Can you prove this? Because right now I cannot see any blatant age discrimination, and the only person mentioning ages here is you. It is not age discrimination unless you can show that the sole cause of their actions was your age, not just because you are older.

jb000

marybelle01 wrote: »

Did they offer you less training and support solely because of your age? Or not offer you a contract solely because of your age? Can you prove this? Because right now I cannot see any blatant age discrimination, and the only person mentioning ages here is you. It is not age discrimination unless you can show that the sole cause of their actions was your age, not just because you are older.

In a nutshell, The group were given 4 weeks training and were supposed to be sent to various teams. the majority of the people in the group were put on the same team and I was farmed out to a specialist team where my team leader was hardly ever in the building and was too busy with other projects. The other team were given full time training coaches to help them reach their targets, I was offered practically nothing. I was told off the record that the reason for that team having full time assistance to help them was because they were new and they were young.

I mentioned on several occasions that I needed extra help and was largely ignored left to fend for myself. Last week all the people who had started at the same time as me in that other team were offered full time contracts with the company after receiving full time specialist help and I was just 2% away from reaching the desired target after receiving very little help or assistance.

I was told by the team leader that they will extend my period of temporary assignment until 29 November to reach the desired target.

On Friday 8th November, after working my shift, I received a telephone call from the agency stating that my assignment had been terminated whilst I was waiting at the railway station on the way home.

gb12345

jb000 wrote: »

I was farmed out to a specialist team

Can you prove this was due to your age and not just because they thought you were more suitable in that position - I doubt it.

jb000

gb12345 wrote: »

Can you prove this was due to your age and not just because they thought you were more suitable in that position - I doubt it.

The majority of people in this specialist team were older than anyone in any other team. They were all doing a different type of work to what I was doing. I was doing the same type of work as the other teams, if you get what I mean.

Poppie68

You say 'the majority' of the team went into one group,and you were put into a specialist team..what happened to the rest? You being out into a different team could just be because you were better suited to that role. And to be honest i would think any company would terminate a temp worker who they think is about to bring a grievance agaisnt the comapny.

marybelle01

jb000 wrote: »

The majority of people in this specialist team were older than anyone in any other team. They were all doing a different type of work to what I was doing. I was doing the same type of work as the other teams, if you get what I mean.

Just because the majority of the team are older does not prove that they are in that team because of their age. And if you are in a different team from the others, then the cause of differing levels of support etc appears to be down to the team you are in - not age. I can't see how you are proving that you were treated differently because of your age. An off the record conversation proves nothing other than someone isn't prepared to put their money where their mouth is.

I can see that the company may have got wind of your grievance (which has to be to the employer - your agency - not to the company), especially if you have been talking to people at the company, and decided that you were too much trouble to be doing with. But there is nothing you can do about that - the company is the agencies client, and all the client ever has to do is say they don't want you and that is an end to the matter.

jb000

Poppie68 wrote: »

You say 'the majority' of the team went into one group,and you were put into a specialist team..what happened to the rest? You being out into a different team could just be because you were better suited to that role. And to be honest i would think any company would terminate a temp worker who they think is about to bring a grievance agaisnt the comapny.

I wasn't doing the type of work as this specialist team were doing. I was doing the same type of work as the other teams. Surely getting rid of someone just because they think they may be putting in a grievance is morally wrong.

Takeaway_Addict

jb000 wrote: »

I wasn't doing the type of work as this specialist team were doing. I was doing the same type of work as the other teams. Surely getting rid of someone just because they think they may be putting in a grievance is morally wrong.

Depends on the view you look at it, it might be morally wrong to you but would it be morally wrong to allow someone disruptive to continue working and causing issues to the harmony of those already working there?

Either way, morally is different to lawfully.

jb000

marybelle01 wrote: »

Just because the majority of the team are older does not prove that they are in that team because of their age. And if you are in a different team from the others, then the cause of differing levels of support etc appears to be down to the team you are in - not age. I can't see how you are proving that you were treated differently because of your age. An off the record conversation proves nothing other than someone isn't prepared to put their money where their mouth is.

I can see that the company may have got wind of your grievance (which has to be to the employer - your agency - not to the company), especially if you have been talking to people at the company, and decided that you were too much trouble to be doing with. But there is nothing you can do about that - the company is the agencies client, and all the client ever has to do is say they don't want you and that is an end to the matter.

Thanks for the advice.

I suppose it all boils down to their word against mine. I have been told to go into the agency on Monday. I think I will probably just let sleeping dogs lie even though personally I feel that I had been treated disgracefully.

jc808

Good luck getting any more work through this, or any other associated agencies, let alone this customer.

You sound like a nightmare.