Employers and recruitment agencies are being urged to tighten up their recruitment practices or face allegations of age discrimination.

The warning from employment lawyers at Browne Jacobson follows a recent spate of high profile copycat cases where serial litigants have made numerous claims against agencies and employers on the grounds that they had been discriminated against.

The most recent case involved 51 year old accountant Margaret Keane who made around 20 online applications for jobs for which she was over qualified. The jobs were clearly aimed at newly qualified accountants and as soon as she became aware that she would not be interviewed she served the employment agency in question with a questionnaire under the age discrimination legislation. She then lodged claims of age discrimination at an employment tribunal, initially against eleven agencies. Of these five went forward for hearing.

Both the Employment Tribunal and the Employment Appeal Tribunal rejected her claims deciding that her claims were not genuine as she would not have accepted any of the roles had they been offered to her. As a result she could not say that she had been unfavourably treated or put at a disadvantage.

According to The Tribunals Service the number of age discrimination claims has risen significantly in recent years from 972 in 2006/07 to 3801 in 2008/09.

James Tait, an employment law specialist at Browne Jacobson, said: 

"The news will be welcomed by employers and recruiters, especially those who have already been stung by such troublesome applicants in the past.

"However, it will do nothing to protect employers who have insufficient recruitment practices or who send out advertisements not thinking about whether it reflects what is actually required of the job and which could be discriminatory and turn down a genuine candidate.

"The recruitment agencies in Ms Keane's case were protected from the bogus applicant but the story could have been very different if a genuine application had been made.

"This highlights the need to be careful when deciding who to interview for positions. 

"Decisions should be made on the basis of an applicant's merits rather than on perceptions which cannot be substantiated.

"It is still acceptable to decline an interview to a candidate with insufficient experience or qualifications irrespective of their age, but a potential employer or agency must be prepared to provide proper reasons as to why such experience or qualifications are required for the job."