Top Tips: Age Discrimination Does Not Just Cover Older Workers

While most of the public ity surrounding the recent Age D iscrimination Leg islation has been about older workers, it is vital to remember that the legislation covers workers of any age. Employment organisation ACAS is warning that too many businesses are risking employment tribunals by not fully understanding the scope of the legislation. The DTI found earlier this year that businesses in the UK waste up to £700million every year by making age-based assumptions about their staff, and then failing to capitalise on their abilities. Acas Chair Rita Donaghy said: “It’s easy to forget that age discrimination can affect all employees, from the youngest to the oldest. Rightly, there has been a lot of publicity about older workers – but we shouldn’t forget that the new legislation will require employers to change their behaviour towards the younger generation as well. It is equally unacceptable to describe someone as being ‘wet behind the ears’ as it is to call them ‘over the hill’”. ACAS has put together some top tips to help you avoid age related employment tribunals:

• Recruitment advertisements – avoid specifying length of experience as this disadvantages certain age groups
• Application forms – ask for date of birth on equality monitoring forms only and use skills based forms
• Selection procedures – train managers to avoid stereotypes
• Training – make sure it is open to all employees
• Performance appraisal – set the same standards regardless of age
• Redundancy policy – review your policies: using length of service to select employees for redundancy is likely to be discriminatory
• Equality policy – add age to your current policy