Employment Equality (Age) Regulations Law 2006
by Malcolm T Smith 
What is it?
The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 becomes law on 1 October 2006. This law makes it illegal to discriminate against employees, job seekers or trainees on the grounds of age. Discrimination, or treating someone less favourably, can be by using age to justify not employing, dismissing, refusing training to, or inadequate/poor conditions of employment including lack of promotion or retiring before the default age (65). Working in some industries and professions may be exempt under the regulations, for example working in hazardous conditions, however no two people are the same. Professional footballers playing at the top level normally retire in their thirties but nobody would have told Teddy Sheringham that he wasn’t capable of playing in the Premiership at the age of 40. Everyone starting work now can expect longer working lives. In the 1920s when the retirement age was introduced at 65, a man could expect to live on average until he was 58. With average life expectancy for men now over 78, the Government is slowly changing the State Pension Age (SPA) to 68 with the possibility of 69 or 70 becoming the default age. With an ageing population and a rapidly diminishing State Pension, it is inherent on everyone to contribute for longer so that all the burden of funding future tax expenditure is not left on the shoulders of today’s newest workers.
Why do we need this Law?
Age is accepted as the commonest form of discrimination in the workplace. We already have laws in place to prevent differential treatment on the grounds of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and religion. This is not just a law to help older workers keep their jobs until they retire, but to give all workers irrespective of age, a longer and better quality of working life. Younger workers will benefit because they will be paid the rate for the job, not a lower rate than older workers doing the same job.
All businesses benefit from the value of a diverse workforce. Discrimination and victimisation are counter-productive and lead to an unhappy workplace where staff turnover is greater and job satisfaction diminished. Training will no longer be refused to workers because they are close to retirement or because they are too young. It will not be acceptable to replace older workers with newer ‘models’. Companies who in the past have used restructuring programmes to ease out older workers, will now have to justify any redundancy on terms other than age. The end to ‘Last In First Out’.
How It Will Affect You:
- As a Candidate
You will not be required to supply a date of birth or age on a CV, although you may be asked for this information in a Diversity Monitoring Form. You will not be turned down for a job because of your age. If you have the education, ability and skills required for the position you will have an equal opportunity as any other candidate. Job adverts will have to show a realistic number of years experience. It is not acceptable to ask for ten years experience when the job could be done by someone with less than five years experience. - As an Employer or Recruiter
You will need to remove all age related criteria from advertising. You will not be able to advertise with terms such as ‘young’, ‘mature’ or ‘older’. Even the term graduate should not be used as code for young and just out of university. Graduates are all ages and advertisements will need to attract candidates on their skills and ability. You should examine and remove any offending copy from all advertising especially if provided by clients or third parties. Clients will no longer specify that they are recruiting for a team within a specific age range or that the company profile is young. You will be responsible for any legal action that results from any applicant embarrassed or hurt by offending words. In the USA, where discrimination against workers on the grounds of age has been illegal for nearly 40 years, legal actions for age discrimination are one of the fastest growing areas of litigation. - As an Employee
You will receive the same benefits, training and promotion prospects as older or younger employees. You will not be victimised or harassed because of your age. You will not be subjected to teasing, tormenting and ridicule as a result of your age. All employees should be treated equally when setting work objectives or measuring levels of performance. It will be the responsibility of employers to ensure all employees are aware of the new law. No employee should make derogatory remarks about another employee’s age – terms such as ‘wet behind the ears’, ‘old codger’, ‘should have retired years ago’ and other such remarks are discriminatory and therefore after 1 October 2006 will be illegal.
The Future
Those who have been involved in drafting the new legislation hope that it will signal the end to ageism in all its forms, in the workplace. The Equality Act 2006 received Royal Assent on 16 February 2006. This sets up a Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) which from 2007 will combine all the separate commissions into one united front in the fight against discrimination in all its forms. We all hope that it will signal an end to discrimination and bullying in the workplace and a happier, more settled working life for all.
