"The Age Old Question of Discrimination"....
The 1st October is fast approaching and as you have no doubt heard by now, this is a significant date, as it brings into force the new age discrimination legislation. The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 ("the Regulations") will make it unlawful to discriminate against workers, employees, job seekers and trainees because of their age. The Regulations apply to all employers, private and public sector vocational training providers, trade unions, professional organisations and trustees and managers of occupational pension schemes.
If you are an employer, it is more than likely that the new Regulations will affect you. So, have you checked your job ads to ensure they do not refer to ages of staff or use phrases like "youthful" in setting out the person needed to fill a vacancy? Have you recently looked at your retirement ages and hiring policies.
The Regulations have set a default retirement age of 65, with a review to take place in 2011. This means that employers can retire employees or set a retirement age within their company at or above the age of 65. Retirement or retirement age below the default retirement age will need to satisfy the objective justification test. So, as from Sunday, employees in the UK will have a right to keep working to age 65 even if their employment contract specifies 50, 55, 60, 63 or any other age with a few exceptions such as footballers. It is important to check your contracts now.
Another change that will be brought into force, is the employees right to request to work beyond 65. So even if your employment contracts state 65, an employee cannot be shown the door. You have an obligation to go through a special procedure before asking them to leave.
These Regulations apply not only to older workers, but also to younger workers, and an employer can be found to have discriminated against young workers as well as older workers. All workers should be trained and educated in relation to all aspects of discrimination, not just age, as even office jokes about age could be illegal and lead to an age discrimination case at a later date.
The new Regulations also look at benefits. Benefits based on a length of service requirement of 5 years or less will be exempted and will be able to continue but after the 5 year exemption, employers must show that there will be an advantage for rewarding loyalty, encouraging motivation and recognising the experience of workers not simply on the basis of length of service.
It is important that all employers ensure that your policies and procedures (including recruitment, selection, training and retirement policies) do not accidentally discriminate against older or younger workers.
For further information contact Judith Ellery ( jellery@metcalfes.co.uk ), Angelina Rigby ( arigby@metcalfes.co.uk ) or Bethan Southcombe ( bsouthcombe@metcalfes.co.uk ) on 0117 9290451.
This press release summarises the law on issues which we believe may be of interest to your business. It is not a comprehensive review of the subjects and accordingly is published without responsibility for loss occasioned to any person(s) acting or refraining from action as a result of information published