Neil Williams is a tenor who graduated from the Royal Academy of Music and sang opera at Glyndebourne for 15 years. He worked there for 36 weeks each year and was paid £880 per week (equating to a salary of £31,680 per year) before suffering alleged age discrimination. 
Hours before he was due to perform in the Mozart opera, Clemeza di Tito, he was forced to re-audition for his role in the chorus, and then fired with immediate effect.
Opera directors insisted it was because his voice was no longer up to its high standards.
When he appealed, Neil was told, “Choristers cannot expect to stay with the chorus until they die”.
At the time, Neil was 46. He felt he was being “discarded like an old rag” because the arts industry wanted younger and more attractive faces on stage.
The decision effectively ended his singing career, so Neil (now aged 48) has since retrained as a science teacher.
He is now suing the opera house for age discrimination and unfair dismissal, claiming for 56 weeks of lost earnings and £20,000 for injury to feelings – a total of £89,600.
Neil claims that age discrimination is prevalent at Glyndebourne, and that recruiting younger singers appears to be company policy (because three tenors in their mid-40s were forced to re-audition and then put on ‘vocal review’).
Steven Naylor is Glyndebourne’s director for artistic administration. He says that age was not a factor in the decision. The MD, Sarah Hopwood says a panel of four managers unanimously found that Neil’s singing wasn’t good enough. And Dylan Evans (barrister for the opera house) said that half the existing choristers are over 40.
The case is being heard at Croydon employment tribunal and judge Tony Hyams-Parish is expected to rule on the case later this year. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
What this means to you
Note that age discrimination is the only type of discrimination in which an employer is permitted to provide “objective justification”. That is, an explanation for direct discrimination which can potentially defeat a claim.
If you feel you have been discriminated against at work because of your age, you may be able to make a claim against your employer. But it’s a complex issue, so you need to take specialist advice, early on.
We can help with that.
You might also find our other articles interesting:
- Can my employer say I’m too old to work?
- Refused an opportunity because you’re the wrong age?
- Age discrimination
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