age diversity and ageism
ageism and age discrimination legislation - managing age diversity positively - interpretation and implications
Ageism, age diversity, and age discrimination legislation are now significant aspects of employment, retirement, and life beyond work.
Age diversity offers positive advantages for healthy organisations, just like any other sort of diversity in work and life.
Treating people fairly, regardless of age, is central to the principles of ethical business and ethical organisations.
Ageism and age-related issues are especially relevant in the UK given the introduction of The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, effective from 1st October 2006. This aspect of age equality at work is consistent with legislation across Europe.
If you are a UK employer you need to be aware of, and act upon, the implications of these new regulations, which are explained in some detail in the excellent ACAS document:
Age And The Workplace - Putting the Employment (Age) Regulations 2006 Into Practice
This guide will also be helpful for you as an individual to understand your rights (for example relating to behaviour of an employer, or pensions or retirement) and your personal responsibilities under the legislation.
If you a UK employer (or other organisation affected by these regulations) and you have not yet yet interpreted the age discrimination regulations within your equality policies and principles, then you must do so now.
Responding to age discrimination legislation is not difficult for good organisations; the UK regulations do not unduly challenge any organisation which is already treating its people fairly and ethically.
As such these principles provide a helpful model for adopting age equality provisions for any organisation anywhere in the world.
The checklist and action-planning guide produced by Age Positive (part of the UK Department for Work and Pensions) is another very useful document for employers seeking to interpret and implement these principles.
As a worker or employee or manager, etc., you are also affected individually by these age discrimination regulations.
As well as giving people protection, the UK age discrimination legislation also places certain responsibilities on individuals:
The regulations allow for individuals to be held responsible for certain types of discriminatory behaviour against others (and to be pursued for compensation), aside from the responsibility of the employer or organisation.
To understand how you are affected personally as an individual - in terms of your rights and your responsibilities - see the ACAS Guide for Individuals to the Age Discrimination Regulations.
uk age discrimination regulations - a quick summary
Here's a brief practical summary of the regulations and their implications, which are effective from 1st October 2006:
1. The regulations protect employees and other workers (partners, agency staff, etc) from discrimination, harassment and any other unfair treatment (for example relating to recruitment, training, pay, promotion, retirement and pensions) on the basis of age.
2. Age means any age - not just older people - any age, including young people.
3. People protected by these regulations include:
- current employees and workers
- job applicants
- vocational trainees
- vocational training applicants
- and under certain circumstances people for whom the working relationship has ended (eg., in giving references).
4. The regulations apply to:
- employers of all types
- private and public sector vocational training providers
- trade unions
- employer organisations
- trustees and managers of occupational pension schemes
- and, employees and workers themselves (for example extending to liability for pay compensation in cases of harassment against someone).
5. The regulations make it unlawful on the grounds of age, (unless it can 'objectively justified' - see point 7 below), specifically to:
- discriminate directly against anyone (workers and employees as defined above)
- discriminate indirectly against anyone ('indirectly' covers a very wide range of possibilities, including unintentional ones, such as processes or policies which disadvantage a person because of their age)
- harass or bully anyone, or expose them to harassment or bullying by others, (harassment as perceived and experienced by the victim; the perpetrator's views and intentions are not the issue)
- victimise anyone complaining or giving evidence, or intending action in relation to an age discrimination complaint.
6. The implications of the legislation particularly affect and extend to:
- recruitment and interviewing and selection
- training
- pay and benefits
- performance appraisals
- promotion
- work-related social activities
- dismissal
- redundancy
- retirement (for which transitional arrangements apply to retirements from 1 October 2006 to 31 March 2007)
- pensions
- the general conduct of everyone in work, and their awareness of their responsibilities within the regulations
- and therefore all documentation, systems and processes used in the above.
7. The regulations are not designed to force unreasonable or unsafe changes on people and organisations, and so the rules provide for 'objective justification' to be used where any age discrimination can be proved to be proportionate (appropriate) and legitimate (truly necessary) for the purpose or aim of the organisation. In such cases the onus is on the organisation to provide evidence of the 'objective justification', capable of withstanding scrutiny at a tribunal. 'Saving money' is not a legitimate reason for exceptions to the rules.
8. Here are some examples of specific implications of the age discrimination regulations. Good ethical organisations will be complying broadly with most or all all this already. Less good employers will maybe have a few more changes to make. Again, any exceptions must be considered and justified via the system of 'objective justification'. The examples below are not an exhaustive list of implications of anti-age discrimination. Employers should follow the ACAS guidelines for checking and planning full compliance.
- Unfair dismissal and redundancy rights are not subject to an upper age limit. All workers regardless of age must be given the same rights and benefits in these matters.
- Employers must give employees at least six months' notice of their retirement date. (There are transitional arrangements affecting retirements due between 1st Oct 2006 and 31 March 2007 which are described in the ACAS Employers Guide, which is also useful for employees, especially people approaching retirement.)
- Employees can request working beyond compulsory retirement, which employers will have a 'duty to consider'. There is no compulsion on employers to extend employment beyond the statutory retirement date (based on 65 years of age), provided the retirement procedure has been properly followed. Employees have the right to appeal a refusal by the employer to extend employment beyond an intended retirement date. The detailed provisions and processes are explained clearly in the ACAS Employers Guide.
- Recruiting or rejecting anyone for a job or vocational training on the basis of age is unlawful. This obviously has implications for advertising, job application forms, short-listing, interviewing, selection, training of interviewers, documentation and record-keeping. Implications also extend to the way you brief and manage agencies which provide any of these recruitment services to you.
- Failure or refusal to provide training, advancement, opportunity to anyone on the basis of age - any age - is unlawful.
- Asking for details of age on application forms and appraisal forms is not in itself unlawful, but doing so obviously increases the potential for age discrimination to take place. Official advice (ACAS, etc) is to remove age and date-of-birth questions and sections from documentation used in recruitment, interviewing and assessing people, and instead use a separate 'diversity monitoring' form to gather and record age-related information, which is retained by your HR department as part of overall equality and diversity monitoring processes.
- Job applicants who believe they have been rejected because of their age can make an age discrimination claim to an employment tribunal - it is not necessary to have been employed by the organisation to make a claim against an employer. The same principle applies in the case of applicant rejection by a vocational training provider.
- When a working relationship has finished, employers and staff of the employer are still liable under the age discrimination legislation for any behaviour that could be deemed discrimination, harassment, or victimisation against the departed worker. For example, in giving a reference which includes any comment which mentions the person's age (directly or indirectly) in an unhelpful way - any age - is unlawful. Such action would be unlawful even though the person is no longer an employee.
- Employers have a duty to train all staff in the Age Discrimination legislation and its implications, both from the perspective of people's rights, and especially their responsibilities. Here are some training ideas for age diversity, discrimination and equality in general.
- Partners in businesses (for example legal firms and consultancies formed partnerships rather than as limited companies) are covered by the regulations except in the retirement process, which broadly must be managed by partnerships (their executive management) via 'objective justification', rather than the normal retirement process for employees.
- Employers should 'age monitoring', (which is also the alternative instead of visible age and date-of-birth details on recruitment and assessment documents). Age monitoring is the statistical analysis of workers' ages (by HR department or equivalent), in terms of recruitment, promotion, training, discipline, leavers, etc. This is most easily done in age bands, for example: 16-21/22-30/31-40/51-60/60-65/60+ although you can use any banding system that suits you. Age monitoring helps to identify potential problems, and to highlight and provide evidence for 'objective justification' (exceptions) where discrimination can be justified. It is sensible to incorporate age monitoring within existing equality and diversity monitoring system, assuming you have one. If not, now might be a good time to introduce one.
- A good way to address these age discrimination issues is to review (or write for the first time if you've not already done it) your equality policy. To identify gaps and vulnerabilities in current practices, write or review your equality policy, in tandem with using a 'health-check' or checklist, which then logically enables the formulation of an action plan to fill the gaps. The guides and resources featured here will help you to do this. An equality policy is not a legal requirement, but it is officially recommended (by ACAS, UK DTI, etc).
The principles of equality are consistent with running an ethical organisation. An ethical organisation (amongst other things) does not discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on grounds of gender, race, religion, disability, etc, and rightly now - age.
As with any matters of employment law it's important to understand the details and to seek appropriate qualified advice to help you interpret the issues for your own situation.
For in-depth detail refer to the various links on this page, or see the DTI's Age Discrimination Regulations materials.
If you need the whole thing, chapter and verse, see and download the full UK Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006.
ACAS (The Arbitration and Conciliation Advisory Service) are especially well positioned and able to provide this support. ACAS is a publicly funded body run by a council made up of leading figures from business, unions and independent sectors to academics.
And as already mentioned, the 'Age Positive' Organisation is very helpful for all issues relating to Age Discrimination and more especially for developing ideas and strategies for leveraging age diversity at work. The Age Positive campaign is part of the UK Department for Work and Pensions, and it promotes the benefits of employing a mixed-age workforce that includes older and younger people.
age diversity - free guidance and implementation materials
Following the introduction of the Age Discrimination regulations, the Age Positive unit within the UK Department for Work and Pensions published in 2007 this series of free Age Positive Guides, giving information and examples for the effective interpretation and implementation of age discrimination regulations, and answering the most common questions arising since the introduction of age legislation in the workplace. These excellent free materials help demonstrate and enable the significant organizational benefits arising in all aspects of employing an age-diverse workforce.
These booklets, made available here by kind permission of Age Positive, cover the main areas of the employment process in terms of age diversity, its organizational benefits, and age discrimination regulations compliance:
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Other Age Positive materials are available from the Age Positive Publications section of the Age Positive website.
age diversity - positive benefits for healthy organisations
Age Diversity represents the range and mixture of ages in workforces and organisations, and the challenges and opportunities that employers face in managing it.
Having equality philosophy and policy in place - and fully understood by all staff - is consistent with ethical business, and good modern ethical organisations.
Equality means treating all people equally: valuing everyone for their strengths, capabilities, experience and potential.
When an organisation values its people in this way, people respond positively, with loyalty, commitment and enthusiasm.
Some organisations regard age diversity, and other aspects of equality, as mostly a challenge and a difficulty. Where diversity is not embraced by an organisation's leadership, this tends to mean that people are not treated fairly and equally, and then quite understandably they lose faith in the employer.
Good organisations regard diversity and equality as huge opportunities to improve and develop organisational quality and performance.
Treating people fairly, and valuing everyone, promotes cohesion, unity and loyalty in a workforce.
Treating people fairly and equally enables the organisation to benefit from everyone's strengths, because people are more encouraged and likely to use them.
Aside from this, we live in a world which is now organised and connected globally.
Borders and barriers are disappearing; people can largely live anywhere, work anywhere, and be anything.
The world's nations, societies, and market-places now largely reflect this growing diversity.
Business and organisations need to respond to this new diverse landscape, and the best corporations will align with it.
A diverse organisation which embraces equality is far more likely to possess the mixture of people, capabilities and experience necessary to succeed in the modern world.
Diversity is an organisational advantage, and it's good business sense to develop it.
For an additional and useful perspective on age see Erik Erikson's Psychosocial Theory.
see also
- Training and Team Activities Ideas for Age Diversity, Discrimination and Equality in General
- Ethical Business and Corporate Responsibility
- Business start-ups - tips for older people and younger people
- McGregor's X-Y Theory
- Adams' Equity Theory
- McLelland's Motivational Theory
- Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
- Personality Models and Types
- Love and Spirituality at Work
- NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming)
- Transactional Analysis
- Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences theory
- Kolb's Learning Styles
- Kirkpatrick's Learning Evaluation Model
- Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains (Educational Objectives)
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The Age Positive Guides are © Crown Copyright 2007
© Alan Chapman 2006-2009