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Overview of The
Employment Equality (Age) Regulations October 2006
The ageing population means that employers will benefit
from the fact that older people are interested not only in full time work, but also in part-time & contract
work, thus giving greater flexibility.
The new law affects employers, training &
education providers, trade unions and professional associations. The last two must also be
aware that legislation will affect them not only as employers but also from the
point of view of membership. The law will cover all aspects of recruitment
and selection, training & development, promotion, pay & benefits,
statutory redundancy and retirement ages. The law will protect job
applicants, working people, people on training, people seeking training, crown
appointed people, and members & applicants to trade unions and professional
bodies
The new law covers direct and indirect discrimination
and harassment,
but there will be exceptions if they can be justified, and there is supporting
evidence.
The EU directive states that differences in treatment
may be permitted where they are:
"objectively and reasonably justified by a
legitimate aim….....and if the means of achieving that aim are appropriate and
necessary”
Legitimate aims may include health & safety,
facilitation of employment planning, training requirements, encouraging or
rewarding loyalty, and the need for a reasonable period of employment prior to
retirement. Access to vocational training for particular categories to promote
their vocational integration is also being considered as a justification for
different treatment. Only case law will establish what is
acceptable!
There will be some key implications for employers
wrinklies DIRECT have developed the Age Matters Workshop aimed to help management
review its procedures – a workshop that will address
issues relating to company retirement plans, recruitment & selection
procedures, promotion procedures, training & development processes,
remuneration schemes, and termination policies. It will also help a company to
assess the implications arising from the results of an age audit. The aim is
to be able to justify your position.
More challenges arise from hiring of temps, flexible working,
sickness entitlement, insurance and discipline procedures
All is not doom and gloom however - a company should
look for the upside by considering whether there may be new business
opportunities by filling the age gaps. Companies such as B&Q, The Halifax
and Domestic & General Insurance have identified ‘bottom line’ benefits
from employing older workers. These benefits have come about due to the
characteristics that older workers bring with them, characteristics such as a
mature approach enabling them to take on greater responsibility, a high degree
of loyalty leading to reduced turnover costs, reduced training costs because
many experienced workers require little more than induction training, a strong
work ethic giving greater productivity, and increased sales by ‘mapping’ front
line employees with consumers.
Age Matters will be delivered as a facilitated workshop, taking
participants through the implications on each of their HR processes. In
one-company workshops the company’s own procedures will be the basis for
analysis. When running multi-company workshops the material used will be general
examples.
The objective will be to ensure that the participants
understand the implications so that they can modify their
procedures. If they want help to do the modifications then this would
be a separately negotiated consultancy service.
Contact us for more information
Email: mikesaunders@wrinklies.org Telephone: 08452 601116 Fax: 07092 013799
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