Age Discrimination – Recruitment, References, Pay, Benefits & Retirement

The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 affect any business which has employees. As well as banning intentional age discrimination, the regulations cover a number of potential age discrimination situations.

All employees and workers of any age are protected from age discrimination, including any business partners your company has, any contract workers you use and anyone placement students, apprentices or trainees you employ.

This is a guide to how the legislation affects recruitment, references, benefits and retirement.

Recruitment

• You cannot advertise a job specifying that applicants must be a particular age unless the age restriction can be objectively justified or is imposed by law.
• You must make sure age is not a factor in your recruitment. This doesn’t mean you need to employ young or older people, but that your recruitment decisions are based on the skills and ability someone has to do the job they have applied for.
• It is advisable not to use phrases like “energetic and keen to learn” and “experienced and accomplished” as these could imply an age bias.
• There are some circumstances where it is necessary to state age as a requirement for a job, such as requiring bar staff to be over 18 and requesting actors aged between 20 and 40 to audition for the role of a 30-year-old character.
• You can refuse candidates within six months of their 65th birthday or older.

References

• If you are asked to give a former employee a reference, do not use age-related statements, such as “works hard despite his years” and “knowledgeable despite her youth”. You could still face age discrimination charged even though the person no longer works for you.

Pay and Benefits

• You cannot use age as a determining factor when setting pay levels, except in relation to minimum wage requirements
• There is no age limit for sick pay.
• If you provide sick pay above the legal minimum as a benefit, you cannot use age as a determining factor for the benefit. (You may use length of service of up to five years as a factor.)
• There is no age limit for maternity pay, paternity pay or adoption pay.
• If you provide maternity pay above the legal minimum as a benefit, you cannot use age as a determining factor for the benefit. (You may use length of service of up to five years as a factor.)
• Be wary about introducing benefits connected to length of service as fewer younger employees are likely to have enough service to qualify – although this type of discrimination might be possible to justify on the grounds that it encourages staff retention.

Retirement

• Although the national default retirement age is 65, it is not compulsory, and employees are legally allowed to retire before 65 and carry on working after 65.
• You can only retire employees below the age of 65 if you can show that having a lower retirement age is both appropriate and necessary.
• If you want an employee to retire, you must give them six months notice of the planned retirement date.
• Employees have the right to request to work beyond the retirement age set by your business, whether the age is 65 or not. You don’t have to agree to the request or give your employee a reason for turning the request down, but you do have to hold a meeting with them to consider it.

More information

• Age Discrimination – Training, Promotion, Dismissal & Redundancy
• Age Discrimination – Between Employees

Downloads

• A Guide for Employers: Age and the Workplace – Putting the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 into Practice (Acas)