Firms need to act on age law

Simon Davies, of Worcestershire - based Peninsula, said that figures compiled by the consultancy show only 43 per cent of employers in Worcestershire have looked at their age discrimination policies and taken new measures that were introduced on October 1.

A survey of 246 Worcestershire employers found:

43 per cent have begun to take action to implement the new age discrimination laws

79 per cent admitted they had difficulty in interpreting the new measures

77 per cent believe the Government should have done more to help businesses prepare for the new laws

New measures prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of age came into force at the beginning of October and if employers have not started getting their act together then they need to do so immediately, said Mr Davies.

The new laws will open the door to a rise in employment tribunal claims.

Its the single biggest change to employment law in the last 30 years. Race discrimination, sex or religious discrimination applies generally to small numbers of people, whereas age discrimination affects every employer and every employee.

As an employer you must therefore follow procedures to ensure you are not at risk of being taken to tribunal.

Employers need to look at their entire employment policies because it affects recruitment C terms such as office junior or mature worker cannot be used. It may affect service-related benefits such as extra holidays after so many years service. It may affect selection for training or promotion, and will certainly affect succession planning where assumptions have been made about age and length of service.

There will also be implications for selection for redundancy criteria such as last in, first out, redundancy payments and the adoption, or not, of the default retirement age of 65.

While retiring people before the age of 65 is not absolutely forbidden, it will require objective justification if such dismissals are to be deemed to be fair by an employment tribunal.