Age Discrimination Regulations

March 1 2007 - A new publication from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and the TUC offers comprehensive guidelines on the practical impact of age discrimination legislation that came into force in October 2006, covering retirement; recruitment, selection and promotion; pay, benefits and pensions; health and safety; redundancy; and harassment.

Managing age: A guide to good employment practice /Developing a new mindset on age and retirement is directed at employers and trade unions and is a response to issues raised by focus groups conducted across the UK. These include whether giving birthday cards or operating graduate recruitment schemes could be interpreted as ageist.

Dianah Worman OBE, CIPD diversity adviser said:

"The CIPD and TUC have joined forces to ensure that HR and trade unions are better informed about what good practice on age is. The guide will hopefully contribute to creating age diverse workforces helping employers to implement the new age regulations without falling into the trap of political correctness while still meeting business needs.

"We hope the guide will reassure employers and blow misconceptions out of the water. The age regulations will fail if they result in unintended consequences. Employers should not think that graduate recruitment schemes and practices that reward loyalty are automatically unfairly discriminatory - it is making sure they are free from unfair age bias that is important. The guide reflects the business case for employing older workers and should give a boost to their recruitment and retention in the workplace."

Sarah Veale, the TUC's head of equality and employment rights commented:

"The new age laws were a long time coming, but sensible employers have nothing to fear from them. The best way of making sure that their workplace is a bastion of good age practice is to work hand in hand with a union to ensure that employees have a say in how things are to be done.

"Age discrimination is bad for business and ageist remarks can make work unbearable for the person on the receiving end. Lots of weird and wonderful myths were put about when the age regulations were first introduced. This guide will help employers and unions better understand the new laws and put them into action in the workplace."

Previous Article

March 9 2006 - Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson has published the final measures to outlaw age discrimination in the workplace. The regulations are the final major stage of implementing the European Employment Directive adopted in November 2000. They will come into effect in October, subject to parliamentary approval, and cover Great Britain - separate legislation will cover Northern Ireland.

The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 do not affect the age at which people can claim a state but will:

• ban age discrimination in terms of recruitment, promotion and training
• ban unjustified retirement ages of below 65
• remove the current age limit for unfair dismissal and redundancy rights
• introduce a right for employees to request working beyond retirement age and a duty on employers to consider that request, and
• introducea new requirement for employers to give at least six months notice to employees about their intended retirement date so that individuals can plan better for retirement, and be confident that "retirement" is not being used as cover for unfair dismissal.

The Regulations apply to individuals in work, seeking work or wanting access to training, to all employers, and to all providers of vocational training (including further and higher education institutions) and vocational guidance.

Alan Johnson said:

"Ageism will affect more people, at some stage in their lives, than any other form of discrimination. But until now the law of the land has allowed it to continue. With these new regulations it will become illegal for workers to miss out on recruitment, promotion or training because of prejudice about their age

"As we are living longer and healthier lives, It is essential that the talents of older workers are not wasted. We must have the opportunity to carry on working where that is what we want . So we will scrap unjustified retirement ages below 65 and introduce a new right to request working beyond 65. In five years we will review all retirement ages to see whether the time is right to abolish them altogether. . It's all about choice - not work till you drop but choose when you stop.

"Ageism hits younger people too, who can find themselves discriminated against in the job market. For business to thrive in an increasingly competitive market they must not ignore the skills of any worker, whatever their age. The regulations give younger workers new protection too.

"Considering talent and not age will help employers reap the benefits of an age diverse workforce in reducing recruitment and training costs and retaining key skills and knowledge."

The Regulations include transitional provisions which will ensure that employers can effectively manage the process of retirement during the first six months of the regulations coming into force. The regulations allow for a retirement age at 65, but the Government will review this in five years time.

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