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New Rules on Equal Opportunities
Make sure you are aware of the new rules which come into force on 1st October 2006.
From the 1st October the New Regulations could make it illegal to: -
- Ask someone their age in a job interview
- Offer medical check-ups only to staff who are over 50
- Move anyone over 60 off manual duties or shifts
- Exclude older members of staff from training
- Recruit and promote on the basis of age - Eg. "Young Healthy male required etc".....
- Ask for five years experience in a recruitment spcification/advert
With effect form 1st October 2006 the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 come into force. Any failure to comply with the new legislation could result in your company being fined. It includes provisions relating to service related benefits and occupational pensions. With the new act there is no upper limit to the amount of compensation that can be claimed so if you don't want to be taken to the cleaners make sure you and your managers are aware of your new responsibilities.
Sadly up to 50% of UK employers do not appear to have a policy on age discrimination. In the last 20 years so many individuals were thrown on the scrap heap after they turned 45 and and had difficulty in getting a new job after reducdancy, some might say that there is still a bias in many sectors on age.
This poses problems for owners of businesses and their managers because ageism can be deeply embedded in an organisation's policies and behaviours without the awareness that this is so. Not recognising this could cause you problems and if your business is largely focussed on young or more mature employees you may have to rethink your recruitment policies and work practices.
If this is the case you may require some urgent training to ensure you comply with the new legislation. Imagine a new company formed by young people and employing young people all around the same age, perhaps this imaginary business could be in the IT Sector with new media skills at its core. What would your policy be on employing an elderly person who has acquired the same skills?
For Example, we understand that the regulations:
- Will Prohibit unjustified age discrimination in employment and vocational training
- Will require employers who set their retirement age below the default age of 65 to justify or change it (there are some exceptions)
- Will introduce a new responsibility on employers to consider an employee's request to continue working beyond retirement
- Will require employers to inform employees in writing, at least six months in advance, of their intended retirement date. (This is designed to allow people to plan for their retirement )
- Will remove the upper age limit for unfair dismissal and redundancy rights, thus giving older workers the same rights to claim unfair dismissal or receive a redundancy payment as younger workers, unless there is "a genuine" retirement
- Will remove the age limits for Statutory Sick Pay, Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Adoption Pay and Statutory Paternity Pay.
Note: Cumbria Business Portal or Artemis Media accept no responsibility for actions taken by anyone after reading this article. The article is based on our understanding of the legislation and is not meant to give advice but simply to make the reader aware of new responsibilities due to come in on 1st October. Should you require advice you should contact a specialist recruitment consultant or agency.
Further information can be obtained by following link below which will open in a new window:
www.dti.gov.uk/er/equality/age.htm
