Telling someone to ‘grow up’ is not age discrimination
A hairdressing apprentice whose colleague told her to “grow up” and to pull herself together while being sick in a toilet at work has lost her claims for age discrimination and constructive dismissal.
According to the Mail Online, 20-year-old Jasmine Stunell, who was a trainee at Leo Bancroft salon in Weybridge, Surrey, left the salon following the comments and brought the legal action against her employer.
However, the Tribunal panel said:
“The Tribunal does not find the words 'grow up' and 'pull yourself together' in themselves are related to age and can be said to anyone and particularly to someone older who is acting in a childish way.”
Discrimination is defined as the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of the nine protected characteristics (one of which is age) as defined in the Equality Act.
Ms Stunell had started working as a stylist at the salon in January 2017, studying towards a vocational qualification on Saturdays, before becoming an apprentice seven months later. At the end of her three-month probationary period, owner and manager Leo Bancroft raised some issues with her performance, including her timekeeping, disappearing during the day and generally poor attitude, including towards clients. Nevertheless, she was officially made an apprentice in February 2018.
However, Ms Stunell then alleged her colleague made discriminatory and bullying comments against her and departed. But the Tribunal accepted the colleague's version of events when she denied saying Ms Stunell should pull herself together.
Ms Stunell also claimed that another colleague had said she should be replaced with someone more reliable, which the Tribunal again found was not age related and would have been said about any member of staff who was late or disappeared without explanation during the day.
The Tribunal, which was held remotely, dismissed all her claims and found she had not been bullied or discriminated against at work.
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