Age Discrimination Legislation
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From 1 October 2006, all employers will need to be aware of The Employment Equality (Age) Discrimination Regulations 2006 and its impact on the recruitment of staff.
This represents the final piece of the employment discrimination legislation that the government has implemented to ensure equality in the workplace. It also represents one of the most significant changes to recruitment practices in the UK for decades.
At Hays, we have been tracking this new legislation and now provide our interpretation to ensure our clients are fully briefed on what it means in practical recruitment terms. All employers should be aware of the changes. We have created a précis of the key points that you should be aware of as follows:
1. Recruitment
Application Forms
- You must remove any request for age or date of birth from your application form and include it separately in a diversity monitoring form, which should be kept by your HR/Personnel department.
- Asking for age-related details on your application forms, could potentially allow age discrimination to occur.
Job Description / Advertisement
- You must avoid references to age in your job description and advertising e.g. under the new Regulations it is not recommended specifying a minimum number of years of experience to fulfil a job; instead, the focus should be on the skills required to undertake the job/role.
- You cannot use words or descriptions that infer age e.g. youthful, energetic and dynamic.
- The use of PQE and years of experience, either banded (e.g. 2-4 PQE) or from a minimum (2+PQE), leaves room for potential age discrimination and should be avoided. You must be able to prove that the job requires this particular standard of experience in order to advertise it as such.
2. Promotion & Training
- All opportunities for promotion and training should be made known and available to all employees.
- With internal promotions and transfers, particular care should be made when giving references between managers - the Regulations cover these references.
- When considering training courses for your staff, you should be mindful of any age-related barriers and ensure that all your staff are able and encouraged to fully participate, irrespective of their age.
3. Age Discrimination Awareness
- Irrespective of the size of your organisation, you should have a clear Equality Policy and you should communicate this clearly to all your employees.
- For The Employment Equality (Age) Discrimination Regulations 2006, you should make all staff who are involved in recruitment, selection, training and promotion aware of the changes and the implications for your organisation.
- Take particular care to review your appraisal and promotion methods and criteria - these should not include any references to age or experience but be based purely on an individual’s personal performance.
4. Redundancy Procedures
- You should ensure that the policies and selection criteria used by your organisation for effecting redundancy are not affected by age discrimination.
- This could mean that policies such as ‘last in, first out’ could be deemed as age discriminatory by your employees.
5. Policies & Procedures
- Across your organisation you should be reviewing your standard policies and procedures to ensure there is no inherent age discrimination taking place.
- These include reviewing leave standards, holiday requests, sickness, disciplinary, internal transfers, and flexible working arrangements amongst others policies.
6. Bullying & Harassment
- The Regulations also cover any kind of abuse that refers to age in a derogatory or harassing manner.
- For example, referring to someone as ‘too long in the tooth’ or ‘a young pup’ can be deemed discriminatory and lead to a case being raised.
- This also extends to office events where some of your staff may not be invited because they are perceived as too young or old to be interested - you must ensure inclusiveness in your organisation’s activities.
7. Retirement
- The Regulations set a minimum retirement age of 65 (to be reviewed again in 2011). In effect, this means you can retire your employees or set your retirement age at or above 65 for your organisation.
- You will need to have a clear justification for having a retirement age below the minimum retirement age of 65.
- Your employees have the right to request to continue working beyond 65 and your organisation must give a fair hearing to these requests .
- You must notify an employee up to 12 months in advance of the minimum retirement date of their rights and not less than 6 months prior to this date.
8. Exceptions & Exemptions
- There are various exception and exemptions to the Regulations primarily based around the principle of ‘Objective Justification’.
- The test will be whether the employer’s actions are “a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”.
- If you consider you have an ‘Objective Justification’ for discriminating on age grounds, your consultant may ask you for this justification in writing.
For further information...
At Hays, we will endeavour to keep our clients aware of changes in employment legislation and the potential impact on your organisation. There are a number of sources below which can assist you further.
For more detailed information, email agerecruitment@hays.com.
Hays Disclaimer: This web page is not intended to be a comprehensive briefing into the legislation and is not intended to provide legal advice. This briefing should not be relied upon or treated as a substitute for specific advice regarding individual circumstance.
