Miriam O’Reilly, the former Countryfile presenter, has won her claim against the BBC for age discrimination and victimisation.
The employment tribunal upheld her claim that the BBC’s decision to drop her in favour of younger presenters was age discrimination, though it rejected a claim for sex discrimination.
Ms O’Reilly, who is 53 years old, was one of four female presenters in their 40s or 50s who were dropped from the television programme Countryfile when it moved from Sunday mornings to a prime-time Sunday evening slot. They were replaced by much younger presenters, although the long-standing host of the show John Craven, who is 69, was retained (hence Ms O’Reilly’s sex discrimination claim.) The tribunal heard that whilst working on the show Ms O’Reilly had been warned to be “careful with those wrinkles when high definition comes in”, and had been asked whether it was “time for Botox.” Ms O’Reilly also argued that after she left Countryfile, offers of work on the other BBC programmes she had worked on in the past immediately dried up.
The BBC had justified its decision to replace the older presenters with younger ones on the grounds that they would be more popular with prime-time viewers. However, this “complacent” explanation was rejected by the tribunal, which ruled that there was no evidence that selecting younger presenters was necessary to appeal to a prime-time audience.
The tribunal also upheld Ms O’Reilly’s claim for victimisation, agreeing that her manager at the BBC had victimised her by ensuring that she was dropped from the other BBC programmes she presented, and for not allowing her to continue writing for Countryfile Magazine after he suspected her of being responsible for negative press reports.
The amount of compensation to be awarded to Ms O’Reilly will be decided at another hearing in the next few weeks.
The tribunal’s ruling has made it clear that broadcasters are justified in their attempts to widen the appeal of their television programmes (and in this case, by attracting a younger audience). However, it is not justifiable to give preference to younger presenters over more senior presenters (even if the eldest presenter – in this case John Craven – is retained.)
In the light of this decision, which is not to be appealed according to the press reports, employers need to be mindful of the ways in which they treat older employees/workers, particularly having regard to the abolition of the default retirement age which comes into effect between April and October this year. Employers will have regard to the fact that age discrimination awards are not capped by any statutory ceiling.
