Executive wins age tribunal case after being called an ‘old fossil’

A £300,000-a-year executive fired from an FTSE 250 firm was told he was "an old fossil who did not know how to manage millennials".

A tribunal heard that Glenn Cowie sued for age discrimination after he was sacked and replaced with a younger person - following the implementation of a new policy encouraging the company not to hire people aged over 45.

A divisional president at the global engineering company Vesuvius - which makes products for the car industry, steel-makers and foundries - Mr Cowie was 58 when he was told he would be dismissed after almost 40 years of employment. Mr Cowie accused the company of "institutional and deep prejudice against older employees", and has now won claims of age discrimination, victimisation and unfair dismissal, and is set to be awarded compensation.

Held in central London, the employment tribunal heard that Mr Cowie joined Vesuvius in 1981 while living in South Africa. In 2014, he was made president of one of Vesuvius's four divisions, the global business unit at Foundry Industries.

The tribunal was told that Mr Cowie was informed of his impending dismissal just 18 months after the Vesuvius chief executive, Patrick Andre, called Mr Cowie an "old fossil" in the middle of an executive meeting.

Cowie told the tribunal that during the meeting in Brazil in February 2018 Mr Andre - now 58 - said: "These new millennials will never stop pushing until they have my job and you older guys have to get used to it." Later, when discussing the resignation of a manager in his 30s - whom Mr Cowie had hired at Mr Andre's recommendation - it was claimed Mr Andre told him he was "an old fossil who doesn't know how to manage millennials."

The tribunal heard Mr Andre emailed Mr Cowie in May 2018, pushing for any new recruits to be a maximum age of 45 years old. Mr Andre confirmed this was the "preference" but it was not a "rigid rule" and he denied any "age ceiling". That September, Mr Andre indicated to the company's board that Mr Cowie was not performing well enough and had six months to improve.

However, the tribunal panel was told that this was not communicated to Mr Cowie, and in August 2019 he was told his employment would be terminated. Vesuvius argued that his replacement, Karena Cancilleri, was aged 51 – showing that the under 45 policy was not a rule.

The panel concluded that while the "old fossil" comment was discriminatory, it happened too long ago to form part of Mr Cowie's case. However, the remark was deemed to be "important background", and the tribunal ruled Mr Cowie was unfairly dismissed and suffered age discrimination. It also ruled he had suffered victimisation after raising grievances and appeals following his sacking.

A hearing to decide the level of compensation will take place later this year.
 

Mandy Peters Solicitors 

Lewisham