Originally Posted by swedish
Agree on the technicality, but last in first out does not apply unless there is an age spread in line with the remaining workforce. As soon as seniority lists are tested in court you can say goodbye to it being used in redudancy or as a promotion tool. There is a status quo at the moment as it is not in the interests of the pilots and also not in the interest of most airlines to upset the workforce. Ask any employement lawyer and they will say the same for LIFO as for seniority lists.
Are you sure about that? I am now an employment lawyer (after bugging out of the aviation biz -- law was my Plan B), and that doesn't sound right to me.
Granted, I am in the U.S., so I could be wrong about U.K. / European law. But under U.S. age discrimination law, layoffs made according to a seniority system are absolutely NOT a violation of federal age discrimination law, even if it ends up disproportionately impacting people of certain age groups more than others. If layoffs are done according to an established seniority system, that is basically an absolute defense to a charge of age discrimination.
As I said, I am in the U.S., so it might be different in the U.K. However, I did have occassion to research U.K. employment discrimination law at one point in the past few years, and I seem to remember coming across the same concept in U.K. law.
So -- serious question (not trying to be a wise guy) -- is there a case or some source you could cite supporting what you say? I'd be curious to know the current status of the law in the U.K. (If I have time I'll try to dig up my research.)