We employed on PAYE a staff who was 61 yrs of age for 4 days only and dismissed.

His solicitor contends that his grounds for dismissal were that we discriminated against him “on client’s gender and/or ethnicity and/or race and/or religion”. Yet the simple matter of truth was that he was extemely slow in his work,could not even understand basic concepts of computers and started giving impression to our clients (without our consent)of knowing his work when he had no clue.
My wife who is considerably younger (early 40s) has taken up this role yet once again after he left and is intending to continue on the work in the forseeable future. This way it prevents all these hassles and aggravation.
His Solicitor has now written to us requesting the reasons for his dismissal and whether we have employed anyone else. They require to know the new person’s gender, ethnicity, race and religion if we have taken some else on.
I am concerned about how I reply to such allegations. Can anyone advice whether they have a case? If not, any ideas on how I can defend it successfully. Our relation with the ex-employee has deteriorated completely to the point that he does not wish to talk to me on the phone or attend any meetings at our office.
My thoughts were to ask the Solicitor to explain the reasons why they felt that their client (the ex employee) felt he was discriminated against together with tangible evidence. This way we can ascertain our ex-client’s view even before we justify ourselves. Do you think I am on the right lines by asking this info. even before I give a full reply?

Any suggestions of links to sites or ideas will be most welcomed.

Joe

Joe