Age Discrimination
New proposals coming into force on 1 October 2006 aim to tackle
age discrimination against young and old and will impact on many
aspects of employment from recruitment to dismissal and include pay
and benefits, training, redundancy and retirement. The regulations
have been heralded as the biggest development in UK employment law
in a generation. UK employers fear that these new discrimination
laws will have a greater impact on their businesses than any other
form of anti-discrimination legislation.
Employers Forum on Age (EPA) poll of 100 major UK employers
found that:
- The majority think age discrimination will have a bigger impact
than gender, race, disability, sexual orientation and religious
discrimination laws
- 40% of employers believe that the majority of tribunal cases
will contain some element of age discrimination after 1
October
- The introduction of age discrimination legislation in the US
resulted in a 40% increase in tribunal claims. In Ireland, age is
now the basis of 19% of tribunals.
Businesses who believe they only have to make minor changes to
their existing day-to-day employment practices to take account of
the new requirements are sorely mistaken - if they haven't already
started, employers need to act now to ensure that they are
ready.
Age discrimination impacts every stage of the employment
life-cycle, from recruitment to retirement and beyond - the new
laws can even affect company pension entitlements (although there
are certain exemptions in this regard). In fact, almost every
employment issue will be affected - pay and benefits, career
development, promotion prospects, training, redundancies, sickness
and other absences and so on.
Employers should now be reviewing every facet of their
employment policies and practices, terms and conditions, and
benefits, to ensure that they will not fall foul of the new
requirements. They should also be training their managers and
workforce generally to ensure everyone understand the impact of the
new requirements. Even though the law isn't retrospective, from 1
October employers will be able to rely on current employment
arrangements as evidence of ageist practices.
The importance of taking early action has been highlighted by
the experience of other countries which are ahead of the UK in
introducing age discrimination laws. The introduction of anti-age
discrimination legislation in the US resulted in a 40% increase in
claims, with age discrimination cases increasing at a quicker rate
than any other form of discrimination claim. In Ireland, age is now
the basis of 19% of all employment cases.
In short, the message for businesses is to start preparing for
age discrimination laws now.