Motor giant Ford is being sued by former staff in a multi-million pound age discrimination case believed to be one of the biggest private sector claims in British legal history. Lawyers acting for the workers claim older employees were pushed to take early retirement rather than accept redundancy terms, which cut the level of their payouts. In addition, the Unite union could face being sued for allegedly failing to properly advise staff of their rights...Hundreds of former Ford workers are being invited to join the class action...Papers lodged at court claim redundancy payments made to workers were contrary to the Equality Act as packages were calculated differently according to age bands...A Ford spokesman said: ‘Ford voluntary redundancy packages are recognised to be fair and generous.’