Managing Diversity
Ageism

 Ageism

 Discrimination on the grounds of age is prevalent but often unrecognized. Some countries such as Canada, France, New Zealand and the USA have legislated against ageism and a European Union Directive compels all member states to introduce legislation against ageism by the year 2006. In other countries, employers are allowed to specify age ranges for job applications. For example, a study in the UK found that 30 per cent of advertisements carried discriminatory references against older workers. Half of these specified a maximum age of limit of 35. Other advertisements used terminology such as 'youthful' and 'dynamic' which carry an implicit message that older workers are not welcome to apply. Most Australian states have gone further than most US states in their age discrimination legislation (...) while the USA has banned the setting of mandatory retirement ages, this issue is still a topic of debate in neighbouring Canada.

  Interview questions and age discrimination - The ruling by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in support of age discrimination charges against employee search firm Spencer Stuart by AARP' has focussed attention on the types of questions job candidates may be asked in interviews.

  Australia - Reforms needed to keep mature age employees at work - Professor John McCallum and Jeanine Parsons from the College of Social and Health Sciences at the University of Western Sydney believe that governments and employers need to reform the workplace in order to stop older workers from making an early exit.

  Australia - National Age Discrimination Law a Priority, says Human Rights Commissioner

  Dismissing Employees at 65 in Ontario - The mandatory retirement issue has recently come into focus in Ontario. The reason? The provincial government’s commitment to ban mandatory retirement by drafting legislation that would reverse workplace policies and collective agreements that are currently seen as discriminatory against older workers, because they allow businesses and unions to force them to leave their jobs when they turn 65.

  Age discrimination proposals
- The UK Government has published draft measures to give over 65s the same rights to unfair dismissal and redundancy payments as their younger counterparts under new measures to outlaw age discrimination in the workplace

  UK manufacturers call for standard retirement at 65 - EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, wants the UK Government to set a standard retirement age of 65 when EU legislation on age discrimination is introduced in October 2006.

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