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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Steven Smith

Man told he was 'not getting any younger' when he was passed up for CEO job

An experienced financial adviser has lost an age discrimination case after he was overlooked for a CEO role and told he was "not getting any younger". Managing director David Wylde explained to 58-year-old Paul Rowan he had instead decided to appoint Daniel Tylerman, who was in his mid 40s, because he was "younger and more energetic", an employment tribunal heard.

The panel heard this was despite Mr Rowan being the company's highest-paid employee on £284,000 a year and having worked there for almost 20 years. Mr Rowan was "unhappy" about this, refusing to report to Mr Tyerman and would not attend meetings he called, the tribunal heard.

Later, when the company was struggling financially as the pandemic hit the UK, Mr Wylde decided to cut costs and made Mr Rowan redundant at the age of 59. As a result he made a claim at an employment tribunal for age discrimination and unfair dismissal.

But the panel found Mr Rowan had not complained about the comments until he was made redundant and only was offended that he had been described as less "energetic" than Mr Tyerman. The tribunal concluded he was unfairly dismissed as his redundancy had been "premeditated", but it would have happened anyway as he had become the poorest performing member of his team "in a large number of respects".

Mr Rowan joined DWPF Limited in 2000, with Mr Tyerman joining the small financial advice company based in Finsbury, London, five years later. In October 2019, DWPF Limited went into voluntary liquidation and was bought by DWFS Services Limited, also owned by Mr Wylde.

That same year, Mr Wylde announced he was appointing Mr Tyerman as CEO, a newly created role, as he himself planned to step back from the business. The hearing was told: "Unlike [Mr Rowan], who had a reputation of being somewhat aloof and focused on his own projects, Mr Tyerman had shown an interest in getting involved in other areas of the wider business and introducing new workstreams."

Mr Rowan was unhappy with this appointment and felt he should have been made CEO as the year before, Mr Wylde had discussed him being part of an executive team, the panel heard. During a meeting discussing his dissatisfaction with the news, the panel heard: "[Mr Rowan said Mr Wylde] told him the reason he had appointed Mr Tyerman as the CEO was because he was 'younger and more energetic' and also said that neither he nor [Mr Rowan] were 'getting any younger'.”

At the hearing, Mr Wylde "adamantly" denied making these comments, but the panel found he did, and had written in emails about "younger" employees and referring to the "boys doing the modelling". In 2020, 69-year-old Mr Wylde wrote to Mr Rowan: “At the moment we are in a savage cash crisis due to the Coronavirus. I am doing everything we can to manage this position, but it may result in some redundancies.”

The tribunal, held remotely from central London, heard he also told Mr Rowan, who is now aged 60, that "younger" employees would not be considered as part of the redundancy process. It was then decided that Mr Rowan's team would be scored based on their performance.

It was found he was the lowest-scoring employee and he was made redundant, the panel heard. The tribunal found "unanimously" that this decision had "nothing whatsoever" to do with his age and that although the comments constituted less favourable treatment, it ruled it did not amount to detriment as he was "not upset".

Employment Judge Emma Burns concluded: "[Mr Rowan] was not upset by the references to age in comments. He was upset that Mr Wylde had decided to appoint Mr Tyerman as the CEO and that Mr Wylde had described Mr Tyerman as more energetic than him.

"It was entirely plausible that the words were said given the context of the conversation. In addition, we find that both men were used to making references to age in the workplace... it was part of their culture of communication and neither considered such language to be offensive or inappropriate."

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