The Age Regulations will ban age discrimination in recruitment,
promotion, training and the provision of benefits. Companies
wanting to set a retirement age of anything less than 65 will need
to justify it objectively, and today's upper age limit for unfair
dismissal and redundancy rights will be abolished.
Of 240 survey respondents, two thirds (66%) said they were aware
of the new Age Regulations, which come into force on 1st
October 2006. One third (33%) had taken steps to review their
policies and procedures. Fewer than a third had sought specialist
advice on the implications of the legislation.
The Government published a consultation on the draft Age
Regulations – properly called the Employment Equality (Age)
Regulations 2006 – in July. The consultation ends on
17th October 2005 and, subject to the approval of
Parliament, the legislation will come into force on 1st
October 2006.
Launching the consultation, Trade and Industry Secretary Alan
Johnson argued that individuals should have the choice to carry on
working if they want to. "This is not about forcing people to work
longer, it is about freedom to choose," he said.
Earlier this month a survey of 1,843 adults over 16 by Age
Concern found that, from the age of 55, people are almost twice as
likely to have suffered age prejudice as any other form of
discrimination. Gordon Lishman, Director General of the charity
said, “Age Concern hears regularly from older people who are
refused jobs, training, insurance and even medical treatment just
because of their date of birth."
Pinsent Masons found that 11% of employers include age
instructions in their terms of reference for head hunters and
recruitment agents. Sixty percent currently ask questions about age
on applications forms. Of those organisations, only 14% plan to
make any immediate alterations to their applications forms; 19% say
that they will do so eventually; and 18% have no plans to alter
their applications forms at all.
Ashley Norman, Partner and Head of Equality & Diversity at
Pinsent Masons, described the Regulations as the single most
important development in discrimination law in the last 30 years.
"The findings of our survey bear out the impression we have been
getting from clients that while there is a high level of awareness
about the Regulations, considerable uncertainty exists about the
detail and implications for employers," he said. "The majority are
failing to prepare by reviewing policies."
Norman says it is essential for employers to identify aspects of
their employment policies that might create a compliance risk so
that necessary changes can be made in good time.
"We recommend policy audits are not put off or employers run the
risk of encountering claims by employees and job candidates who are
willing and able to enforce these new rights and to test parameters
of the Age Regulations," he explained.
Other key findings from the survey:
- 81% currently use length of service and 35% use age itself as
criteria for the provision of employment benefits, such as sick
pay, holiday entitlement and level of redundancy pay.
- 29% confirmed that they did not know whether their organisation
might be at risk of a claim under the Regulations in relation to
their employment policies. 13% thought that they were perhaps at
risk and a confident 58% thought that their current policies posed
no potential compliance risks at all.
- 87% currently use a mandatory retirement age and 61% currently
offer employees the opportunity to work beyond the mandatory
retirement age. Of those organisations, 33% intend to retain the
current mandatory retirement age, 25% confirm that they planned to
amend the retirement age and 31% were unsure if they would do so or
not. Of the respondents who did intend to continue to use their
mandatory retirement age, 33% thought that this would be
justifiable.
