AGE DISCRIMINATION LAW 2006

Approximately one third of the UK population, which is almost 20 million people are over the age of 50 years. With improvements in medical science the proportion of healthy older people continues to grow. Whilst age discrimination is not the exclusive preserve of this group, the legislation was principally drafted to protect their rights which have been eroded on a continual basis with those over 40 years old having difficulty in finding employment due to prejudice.

The new regulations will apply to all employees with no upper or lower age limit. Direct and indirect discrimination will be illegal subject to exception if the employer is able to provide objective justification for the prejudice. Breach of the regulations by offending employers will make them liable to pay unlimited financial penalties to the offended worker:

• Retirement ages have not yet been resolved although there are at present three suggested alternatives being a default retirement age of 70, a contractual retirement date or no retirement date.
• Recruitment on the basis of age will be outlawed and employers will be entitled to recruit only on the basis of the applicant’s ability to do the job.
• Pay and benefits will still be determined in relation to length of service or experience providing they are not linked to the employee’s age.
• Statutory redundancy payments awards for unfair dismissal are at present calculated according to the employee’s age and it is proposed in the future to pay one week’s pay per year of service, capped at the statutory limit.
• Redundancy selection criteria on the basis of “last in first out” may be outlawed to protect younger workers from age discrimination.

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