A senior executive has won more than £3million in an age discrimination case after being told by his younger boss he was an “old fossil” who “did not know how to manage millennials”.
Glenn Cowie took global engineering company Vesuvius to an employment tribunal after being fired and replaced with a younger woman following the launch of a new policy which saw the firm encouraged not to employ people over the age of 45.
The £300,000-a-year engineering manager was 58 when he was sacked from his role as a divisional president after almost 40 years.
The tribunal heard that his dismissal came 18 months after CEO Patrick Andre described him as an “old fossil” during a meeting with other executives.
Cowie accused the company of having an “institutional and deep prejudice against older employees”.
He has now been awarded £3,171,723 in compensation four years after he filed legal action.
Cowie began working for Vesuvius – which makes products for the car industry, steelmakers and foundries – while living in South Africa in 1981, the tribunal heard.
He was promoted to Global Business Unit President of Foundry Industries in 2014.
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In 2017, Andre was appointed CEO of Vesuvius, while Cowie – who was based in the United States – saw his salary increase to more than £300,000 in December that year.
The hearing was told that during a meeting in Brazil in February 2018, Andre spoke to senior managers including Cowie and said: “These new millennials will never stop pushing until they have my job and you older guys have to get used to it.”
At the same meeting, the resignation of a manager who was in his 30s and who Cowie had hired at Andre’s recommendation was discussed.
The tribunal heard that Andre told Cowie he was “an old fossil who doesn’t know how to manage millennials”.
Andre is said to have emailed Cowie in May 2018, pushing for any new recruits to be a maximum age of 45 years old, which he explained was the “preference” but not a “rigid rule” and denied there was an “age ceiling” within the business.
The £300,000-a-year engineering manager was 58 when he was sacked from his role as a divisional president after almost 40 years
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In September 2018, Andre suggested to the company’s board that Cowie was not performing well enough in his role and he had six months to improve.
However, this information was not passed on to Cowie, the hearing was told.
The tribunal heard Andre planned to sack Cowie in February 2019, but he did not discuss this with him until August 1, 2019.
Cowie was told “it’s not working” and his employment would be terminated.
The tribunal ruled that Cowie had been unfairly dismissed by Vesuvius and suffered age discrimination at the hands of the company and Andre.