Age law announced
"Draft age regulations create false sense of security" warns the Employers Forum on Age.
14 July 2005
Government publishes today proposals for age laws due 1 October 2006. These new proposals include:
- No age criteria in recruitment, promotion and training (without justification)
- No age criteria in recruitment, promotion and training (without justification)
- No mandatory retirement before 65 (without justification)
- New processes to manage retirement for everyone
- No upper limits on unfair dismissal
- No direct age criteria in redundancy
- Pensions generally exempt
Ms Sam Mercer, director of the Employers Forum on Age, says:
"The Government has set out to reassure UK plc about age regulations by introducing a default age for retirement and by allowing employers to use age criteria in limited circumstances. However, trying to prove age is an essential requirement in the workplace will be difficult and costly, and the default retirement age will cause as many problems as it solves. Employers need to recognise that these regulations will require major reform in all areas of employment policy. This is the last chance for employers to have their say on whether these age regulations are workable - we urge them to respond to these proposals."
The EFA believes that age proposals still leave significant areas of concern for employers, including:
- Planned retirement process: employers will have to follow a set formal process to manage retirement. Employers fear added levels of bureaucracy and difficulty in meeting expectations among staff
- Insured benefits: in future, employers will have to provide the same insured benefits to any employee at any age, yet insurance costs increase dramatically after 65. The increased costs associated with employing someone over the age of 65, may mean age laws make it more difficult to employ older people
- Redundancy compensation: people at different ages currently receive different rates of compensation. This will change and everyone will get the same. Government has two choices: even out to the highest rate (now only offered to those over 40) or average out to the highest rate. To even out to the highest rate could make generous redundancy schemes a thing of the past, while to average out would leave older employees worse off. This is one of the most important issues for employers (and unions) and as yet there is no decision.
For employees, the regulations mean that:
- You can't be too young or too old to apply for a job, ask for training or be considered for promotion
- Employers have to seriously consider any requests to work flexibly after the age of 65
- Your employer can't sack you just because you're over 65
- The people you work with won't be able to use your age (whether young or old) to discriminate against you (just like they can't discriminate against you because of race, gender, disability, religion or sexual orientation).
Sam Mercer is available for comment on Thursday 14 July and Friday 15 July. Please call Lizzie Barrett or Sarah Williams at CHA on 020 7622 8252.
For a copy of Last Chance, the EFA's essential guide to the draft age regulations, please call Lizzie Barrett or Sarah Williams on 020 7622 8252, or email lizzie@chapr.co.uk
You can also download the Last Chance publication.
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