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The purpose of this paper is to report on fieldwork observation of direct age discrimination cases within employment tribunal (ET) hearings over a three-year period. The observation focussed upon whether the witness evidence revealed age stereotyping by employers and whether the ET panel addressed the stereotyping in its questioning and in its judgments. The observation was combined with an analysis of jurisprudence relating to direct age discrimination over an 11-year period.

This research analysed a sample of 90 ET judgments concerning direct age discrimination, which included five fieldwork observation cases concerning direct age discrimination in an ET.

This paper opens a window on age stereotyping in the workplace, illuminating the existence of age stereotypes in the context of ETs and the approach of the courts towards stereotypes in the sample is analysed.

The fieldwork observation is limited to one ET and may not necessarily be representative of all tribunals; however, the findings are supported by a wider qualitative analysis of ET judgments.

This paper provides pertinent learning outcomes for claimants, employers and key implications of legal decisions for human resource policy and practice in organisations.

The paper is the first to conduct fieldwork observation on age stereotyping in an ET, combined with a profile of direct age discrimination claims over the period studied.

The purpose of this paper is to report on an analysis of direct age discrimination cases by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the UK courts and employment tribunals over an 11-year period. The paper focusses upon age stereotyping towards older workers and analyses whether it is endorsed at the European level and/or national level.

This research has analysed a sample of 100 employment tribunal judgments concerning direct age discrimination together with 28 CJEU decisions on direct age discrimination.

This paper highlights that there are a number of cases in which age stereotyping has been endorsed at the CJEU level. By contrast, the UK courts and employment tribunals have adopted a more robust approach.

The main limitation is that it only considers case law from the European Court and the influence on the UK case law, without analysing the eventual decisions of the other EU member states.

The paper contributes to the debate with regard to the approach of the CJEU and the UK courts and employment tribunals in tackling age stereotyping and is the first to examine the influence the CJEU decisions has had on the UK jurisprudence over the period studied.