Employers not preparing for ageism law, says survey

The Age Regulations will ban age discrimination in recruitment, promotion, training and the provision of benefits. Companies wanting to set a retirement age of anything less than 65 will need to justify it objectively, and today's upper age limit for unfair dismissal and redundancy rights will be abolished.

Of 240 survey respondents, two thirds (66%) said they were aware of the new Age Regulations, which come into force on 1^st October 2006. One third (33%) had taken steps to review their policies and procedures. Fewer than a third had sought specialist advice on the implications of the legislation.

The Government published a consultation on the draft Age Regulations – properly called the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 – in July. The consultation ends on 17^th October 2005 and, subject to the approval of Parliament, the legislation will come into force on 1^st October 2006.

Launching the consultation, Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson argued that individuals should have the choice to carry on working if they want to. "This is not about forcing people to work longer, it is about freedom to choose," he said.

Earlier this month a survey of 1,843 adults over 16 by Age Concern found that, from the age of 55, people are almost twice as likely to have suffered age prejudice as any other form of discrimination. Gordon Lishman, Director General of the charity said, “Age Concern hears regularly from older people who are refused jobs, training, insurance and even medical treatment just because of their date of birth."

Pinsent Masons found that 11% of employers include age instructions in their terms of reference for head hunters and recruitment agents. Sixty percent currently ask questions about age on applications forms. Of those organisations, only 14% plan to make any immediate alterations to their applications forms; 19% say that they will do so eventually; and 18% have no plans to alter their applications forms at all.

Ashley Norman, Partner and Head of Equality & Diversity at Pinsent Masons, described the Regulations as the single most important development in discrimination law in the last 30 years. "The findings of our survey bear out the impression we have been getting from clients that while there is a high level of awareness about the Regulations, considerable uncertainty exists about the detail and implications for employers," he said. "The majority are failing to prepare by reviewing policies."

Norman says it is essential for employers to identify aspects of their employment policies that might create a compliance risk so that necessary changes can be made in good time.

"We recommend policy audits are not put off or employers run the risk of encountering claims by employees and job candidates who are willing and able to enforce these new rights and to test parameters of the Age Regulations," he explained.

Other key findings from the survey:

• 81% currently use length of service and 35% use age itself as criteria for the provision of employment benefits, such as sick pay, holiday entitlement and level of redundancy pay.
• 29% confirmed that they did not know whether their organisation might be at risk of a claim under the Regulations in relation to their employment policies. 13% thought that they were perhaps at risk and a confident 58% thought that their current policies posed no potential compliance risks at all.
• 87% currently use a mandatory retirement age and 61% currently offer employees the opportunity to work beyond the mandatory retirement age. Of those organisations, 33% intend to retain the current mandatory retirement age, 25% confirm that they planned to amend the retirement age and 31% were unsure if they would do so or not. Of the respondents who did intend to continue to use their mandatory retirement age, 33% thought that this would be justifiable.