Employment Equality (Age) Regulations         

The new Employment Equality (Age) Regulations law came into force on 1st October 2006.

The regulations cover direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation; and include all workers and those taking part in or applying for employment-related training including further and higher education courses.

The Regulations prohibit discrimination on grounds of age for everyone - young or old.

What does this actually mean?

• Employers cannot use age as a consideration in employment, promotion or retirement decisions.

• Employers' equality policies must now include age and all staff should be made aware of the implications of the new age discrimination regulations.

• A national default retirement age of 65 now exists. Employers are no longer allowed to force someone to retire before then - unless objectively justified where there is a genuine occupational requirement. For example, the role of a character in a play or film, or the serving of alcohol.

• All employees have the right to request to work beyond the age of 65 or any other retirement age (if there is one) set by the company, and employers will have a duty to consider, although not to accept, such a request. This will involve an employee meeting with their employer to discuss the request. An employee has the right of appeal if they are dissatisfied with the outcome of the meeting. This policy will be reviewed in 2011.

• Employers must give at least six months notice to employees about their intended retirement date so that individuals can plan better for retirement, and be confident that "retirement" is not being used as cover for unfair dismissal.

• There is no longer an upper age limit for unfair dismissal and redundancy. Older workers have the same rights as younger workers to claim unfair dismissal or receive a redundancy payment, unless there is a genuine retirement.

• The regulations allow pay and non-pay benefits to continue which depend on length of service requirements of 5 years or less or which recognise and reward loyalty and experience and motivate staff.

• Age limits are removed for statutory sick pay, statutory maternity pay, statutory adoption pay and statutory paternity pay, so that the legislation for all four statutory payments applies in exactly the same way.

• Lower and upper age limits in the statutory redundancy scheme are removed, but will leave the current age-banded system in place.

• The regulations provide exemptions for many age-based rules in occupational pension schemes. The regulations will not affect the age at which people can claim their state pension.

To find out more about the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations visit the Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR) website by CLICKING HERE.

Employment rights for young people: To find out more about your employment rights visit the Direct.Gov website HERE.

Age Positive promote the benefits of employing a mixed-age workforce that includes older and younger people. They encourage employers to make decisions about recruitment, training and retention that do not discriminate against someone because of their age.  To find out more please visit www.agepositive.gov.uk.

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