The discount supermarket chain Lidl has been ordered by the Equality Tribunal to stop requiring prospective employees to state their date of birth on job application forms.
The tribunal also told the company to pay €5,000 to a 51-year- old man it found was discriminated against on grounds of age when he applied to Lidl for a job as a district manager.
A newspaper advertisement stated that the ideal candidate should be a graduate with not more than two to three years' experience in a commercial environment.
Tom O'Connor told the tribunal that after he applied for the job in July 2002, he was informed another candidate was more suitable.
In his application, he had outlined his 5½ years sales experience in his own business and his significant and job-relevant educational background. He had also included a copy of his CV, which outlined his work experience from 1972 to the time of the application. He was not called for interview. In a submission to the tribunal, Lidl Ireland said it was the third time Mr O'Connor had applied for a job with the company. He had been interviewed on a previous occasion.
It denied it had discriminated against him and said its specification for the "ideal candidate" was simply a guideline for applicants. It was not intended to be exclusive to a certain age bracket.
Equality officer Gerardine Coyle said there was insufficient evidence to support the claim that Mr O'Connor suffered direct discrimination on the grounds of age when he was not interviewed.
The issue which needed to be addressed was whether the requirement that candidates should have "not more than two to three years experience in a commercial environment" amounted to indirect discrimination.
Ms Coyle said after Mr O'Connor's claim was heard, she had asked the company for details of other job applications received for district manager posts between July 1st and December 31st, including information on which candidates were called for interview.
Lidl replied it was unable to retrieve the information as it had been destroyed in December 2002. Ms Coyle said she noted, however, that accompanying that response, Lidl had included a copy of Mr O'Connor's application form for a position in August 2001 and a CV he had sent in July 2002.
Ms Coyle further noted that the destruction of other applications took place after Mr O'Connor had referred his complaint to the tribunal and Lidl had been notified of same. "Destroying this information, while the respondent [ Lidl] was aware that it had a claim of discrimination against it, is sufficient to raise an inference of discrimination on the grounds of age as alleged," she said.
A prima facie case of discrimination having been established, Lidl had failed to show that the requirement in its advertisement could be justified as being reasonable in all the circumstances of the case.
In another decision published yesterday, the tribunal awarded €5,000 to a primary school teacher who was asked a discriminatory question at an interview for the position of deputy principal.
Margaret O'Neill had applied for the position at St Gabriel's national school in Dublin.
During an interview she was asked: "Considering that you have been teaching for 27 years, why would you now be bothered with the hassle of the job of deputy principal?"
The tribunal upheld her claim that she was discriminated against on the grounds of age.