The leading German law firm, BUSE, have reported on a test case in Germany in which a 51 year old sought compensation after being turned down for a job which, in its advertisement, had the wording "as a digital native, you feel at home in the world of social media, data-driven PR, moving images..."
The plaintiff argued that it was an abuse of Section 7 of the Equal Treatment Act (AGG). Germany's Equal Treatment Act, like the UK's Equality Act, was the implementation of the EU Directive, Equality Framework Directive 2000/78/EC.
In their commentary on the case which can be read here, BUSE said,
"The verdict comes as no surprise precisely because “digital natives” clearly refers to a group of people born after a specific date."
Reading an English translation of the verdict, the court had no difficulty in understanding the argument of the plaintiff that use of the term was direct discrimination. The court stated that the defendant had shown,
"...it is not just looking for a person in these fields of communication, but someone who regularly brings this quality with them naturally as a 'native'. If the defendant wanted to appeal to applicants of all age groups with these skills, it could have omitted the description "as a digital native", because the term does not clarify the required knowledge, but rather narrows the pool of applicants to those people who were born with the trait because they grew up with these media."
Here in the UK, the DCMS and the Cabinet Office have provided assurances that the term "digital native" will no longer be used in their recruitment process. However, they deny that age discrimination has taken place in the past, even choosing to appoint someone into one of the advertised roles after the matter was brought to their attention.
At the time of writing this blog, the Department of Education are in the middle of a recruitment process for a "social media native". This provides the Secretary of education with an ideal opportunity to send a signal that the new Government are committed to challenging age discrimination in recruitment by, putting their own house in order.
The Department of Education have been asked to freeze this recruitment process and readvertise the role with inclusive terms. So far, this request for age equality has been ignored.
However as the case in Germany shows, change is possible. Paul Shuttleworth hopes to have the opportunity to go before a UK court and call these departments to account for their decisions. Follow his campaign at paulshuttleworth.com.
Meanwhile Paul continues to look for a job. Paul says, "If you like my approach to change and think I would be a good fit for you company, I'd love to speak to you about job opportunities as an administrator, caseworker, or communications manager for your organisation."