Age Discrimination

Age discrimination unlike virtually everything else is still lawful, but it is not good. Employers should not be allowed to decide whether they employ, train, promote or dismiss a worker simply because he or she is “too old” or “too young”. For this reason age discrimination will become unlawful in October 2006.

From October 2006 an employer who advertises a job “ten years experience essential” may find himself in an Employment Tribunal having to justify why ten years experience really is essential because his advert disadvantages younger job applicants. Job applicants should be judged by their suitability to do the job by reference to a job specification or job description, not by an artificial age barrier.

Today employers can make people retire when they reach retirement age. An employee who is forced to retire cannot bring a claim for unfair dismissal. The Government will hold the state pension age at 65 but are considering increasing the normal retirement age from 65 to 70 or simply not having one at all. If the national retirement age is increased to 70, a 69 year old employee forced to retire by his employer would be able to bring a claim of unfair dismissal. An employee over the age of 70 would only be able to bring a claim of unfair dismissal if retirement was not the reason for the sacking.

Some forms of ageism will still be lawful. Extra annual leave or pay after so many years service is quite common. Pay and benefits which depend on length of service generally penalise young employees but provided such increased pay and benefits are designed to encourage or reward loyalty they will still be allowed.

Making age discrimination unlawful will benefit all of us. The Government calculate that the net benefit to the economy will be around £1billion during the first 20 years of the new laws. Let’s hope that is the case and it doesn’t, as some cynics might suggest, only benefit the lawyers in the first few years!