Former MHKs win £33k in age discrimination case

Two MHKs who lost their seats at the 2021 general election have been awarded more than £33,700 by a tribunal after an ageism row.

Geoffrey Boot and Martyn Perkins claimed they were discriminated against by the Treasury because of their age.

Under previous rules, politicians over 60 who failed to get re-elected were not eligible for a resettlement grant of half their basic salary.

Tynwald last month voted to remove the age limit and cut the grant to a third.

Mr Boot, who was 67 at the time of the poll, had been an MHK since 2015 and was the minister for the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture.

Mr Perkins, who was 66, was elected in 2016 and had been appointed chairman of the Office of Fair Trading.

The pair lodged the claim with the Employment and Equality Tribunal in December after the Treasury said they could not be given a pay out under the Members of Tynwald (Resettlement Grant) Scheme 2018.

Both argued their employability had been affected by their time serving in the island's parliament and the publicity surrounding their rejection by the electorate.

The tribunal heard concerns had been raised over age discrimination when the scheme was debated by politicians in February 2018, but no changes were made.

The scheme's non-compliance with the Equality Act 2017 was again raised with the Tynwald Emoluments Committee prior to the election in September last year.

The tribunal found the pair had not legally been employed by the Treasury and had not been discriminated against under the terms of the scheme itself, which did not give the department the power to make the payment.

However, it ruled that the lack of payment on the basis of age did breach the Equality Act and awarded the compensation.

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