Caliam HR Newsletter - September 2006

Age discrimination consultancy from Caliam

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Is your business ready for the new age discrimination legislation?

From 1 October 2006, it will be unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of age. Employers must ensure that their HR polices and procedures regarding recruitment, training and development, promotion, redundancy and retirement operate without an age bias.

Many businesses remain ignorant of the new age discrimination laws. The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has warned that many smaller companies are unprepared for the new regulations and could therefore face costly legal bills. Many FSB members decide to settle these claims rather than face a more costly tribunal.

Is this political correctness gone mad?

Some may say so, but there are commercial reasons why this is likely to become more critical. For example, by 2010, almost 40% of the workforce will be over 45.

Discrimination may take 4 forms – less favourable treatment (direct), applying criteria or a practice which disadvantages a particular age group (indirect), harassment and victimisation. Examples may be (and remember these are unlawful whether intentional or not):

  • Deciding not to employ somebody or denying them promotion because of his or her age (direct)
  • Applying some criteria or rules etc that have the effect of disadvantaging people of a particular age although applied to all employees such as selection criteria for a redundancy exercise (indirect)
  • Harassing an employee by displaying behaviour that is offensive, distressing or frightening, e.g. calling nicknames
  • Victimising an Employee, e.g. labelling an employee a troublemaker because he or she complains of an issue

What are the immediate implications?

Two immediate implications of the Legislation are that the Upper age limits for redundancy and unfair dismissal will be removed and that employees will have the right to request to work beyond 65 or any retirement age set by the employer.

There are clearly further implications – the area of recruitment is a significant one where it is not an employee who may seek to take remedial action against the employer through the Tribunal system.

Review your advertising and selection procedures

To help ensure that they are free from such potential litigation, businesses may need to review their advertising and selection procedures, e.g. avoiding using words such as ‘young’, ‘mature’ and ‘energetic’ and training interviewers in good practice and to focus on competence.

We can help review your HR procedures and recruitment policies - call 0845 241 2828 and find out how we can help you.

Copyright Caliam HR 2006