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Netherlands: age discrimination against a stewardess

District Court of Amsterdam of 21 February 2011 and Equal Treatment Commission of 22 March 2011

Both the District Court of Amsterdam and the Equal Treatment Commission (ETC) found direct discrimination on the ground of age in a claim brought against KLM. An air stewardess, born in 1950, worked for KLM since 1993 under a permanent employment contract. According to the applicable collective agreement, KLM may terminate a permanent employment contract with air stewards/stewardesses on the date when they reach the age of 60. Until the age of 65, the employee may however ask for a contract extension for which refusal may only intervene in case of ‘special circumstances’, such as incapacity to perform the work or defects in the employee performance. In the present case, it was established that no regular performance evaluation of the plaintiff had taken place over the last years. However, several counter performance previously led to formal warnings. After the woman refused the termination of her employment contract at the age of 60, she was offered a temporary contract for one year with no intention from KLM to renew it further.

The Court held that KLM did not succeed to show any reasonable interest justifying its policy on employment contracts termination as it could not show statistics related to a supposedly increase in sickness leave, nor could demonstrate that specific physical requirements had to be satisfied. In its opinion, the ETC stated that in accordance with Dutch labour law, KLM had other possibilities to terminate an employment contract with permanent employees who no longer perform efficiently. It could for instance ask a court for permission to terminate the contract on the ground of bad performance of the employee. A general clause related to the termination at the age of 60 was therefore not necessary. The ETC concluded that there was a breach of the equal treatment principle enshrined in the Age Discrimination Act.

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