What Do You Know About Age Discrimination? ... The Proposals

There is currently an immense amount of talk about age discrimination, legislation of which is due to be implemented in October 2006. In fact, the employment world is buzzing with ideas, synopsis, talk and whispers of how this piece of controversial legislation will affect both the economy and employers. However, what do we really know about the exact rules and regulations that are being proposed?

The Government consulted on proposals to legislate on age discrimination, which ended on 17 October 2005. Subject to Parliamentary approval the legislation will come into force on 1 October 2006.

The draft regulations have included the following provisions:

::  To prohibit unjustified age discrimination in employment and vocational training.

::  To require employers who set their retirement age below the default age of 65
    (to be reviewed in five years) to justify or change it.

::  To introduce a new duty on employers to consider an employee's request to
    continue working beyond retirement.

::  To require employers to inform employees in writing, at least six months in advance,
    of their intended retirement date. This will allow people to plan for their retirement.

::  To remove the upper age limit for unfair dismissal and redundancy rights, giving older
    workers the same rights to claim unfair dismissal or receive a redundancy payment
    as younger workers, unless there is a genuine retirement.

::  To include provisions relating to service related benefits and occupational pensions

::  The regulations also remove the age limits for Statutory Sick Pay, Statutory Maternity
    Pay, Statutory Adoption Pay and Statutory Paternity Pay.

Article by Toni Robinson - Qdos Consulting

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Posted 11/01/06

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