Thinking and guidance with regards to Human Resources issues

(Information provided by Novo Executive Search and Selection)

The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 came into force on 1 October 2006, making it illegal to discriminate against employees, job seekers or trainees on the grounds of age.

Age is accepted as the commonest form of discrimination in the work place

Laws are already in place to prevent differential treatment on the grounds of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation and religion. The law gives all workers irrespective of age, a longer and better quality of working life.

Both direct and indirect discrimination is unlawful. Direct discrimination occurs if an employer unjustifiably treats an individual less favourably on the grounds of age than it treats others, e.g. not providing medical insurance to employees over 50 years. Indirect discrimination occurs if an employer’s policy or procedure unjustifiably puts individuals in a certain age group at a disadvantage, e.g. requiring all new employees to take a health and fitness test.

How does this affect you and your business?

You will not be turned down for a job because of your age

As a Candidate You will not be required to supply a date of birth or age on a CV, although you may be asked for this information in an Equal Opportunity Form. You will not be turned down for a job because of your age; if you have the education, ability and skills required for the position you will have an equal opportunity as any other candidate. Job adverts will have to show a realistic number of years experience. It is not acceptable to ask for ten years experience when the job could be done by someone with less than five years experience.

You will not be able to advertise with terms such as ‘young’, ‘mature’ or ‘older’

As an Employer or Recruiter You will need to remove all age related criteria from advertising. You will not be able to advertise with terms such as ‘young’, ‘mature’ or ‘older’, even the term graduate should not be used as code for young and just out of university. Graduates are all ages and advertisements will need to attract candidates on their skills and ability. You should examine and remove any offending copy from all advertising especially if provided by clients or third parties. Clients will no longer specify that they are recruiting for a team within a specific age range or that the company profile is young. You will be responsible for any legal action that results from any applicant embarrassed or hurt by offending words. In the USA, where discrimination against workers on the grounds of age has been illegal for nearly 40 years, legal actions for age discrimination are one of the fastest growing areas of litigation.

You will receive the same benefits, training and promotion prospects as older or younger employees

As an Employee You will receive the same benefits, training and promotion prospects as older or younger employees. You will not be victimised or harassed because of your age. You will not be subjected to teasing, tormenting and ridicule as a result of your age. All employees should be treated equally when setting work objectives or measuring levels of performance. It will be the responsibility of employers to ensure all employees are aware of the new law. No employee should make derogatory remarks about another employee’s age - terms such as ‘wet behind the ears’, ‘old codger’, ‘should have retired years ago’ and other such remarks are discriminatory and therefore after 1 October 2006 will be illegal.

This outlines the Regulations, if you have any questions or require any further information on this subject, your can contact Peter Tucker at Novo Executive Search and Selection on

tel: 01275 375588 or email:  peter.tucker@novoexec.com     www.novoexec.com