BUSINESS

Age discrimination deadline October 2006

Age discrimination will be against the law from 1 October 2006. With some exceptions, employers will no longer be able to use age-related criteria in recruitment, selection, promotion and entitlement to benefits, nor will they be able to force employees to retire at a specified age.

The government has now published the final draft regulations, which lay down much of the detail of how the legislation will be applied. Employers will not be allowed to set a compulsory retirement age below 65 unless they can justify it objectively. Where an organisation sets a compulsory retirement age, employees will have the right to ask to continue working beyond that age and the employer must consider the request seriously. The regulations establish a set procedure for employees who want to continue working beyond 65 and if employers follow this procedure, employees will not have a case for unfair dismissal where the dismissal is on retirement grounds.

The regulations also cover recruitment, redundancy, pay and benefits, and include a number of other changes since the first draft. Employers will need to make sure that all their procedures will comply with the new law, otherwise they could face some potentially expensive claims from employees, prospective employees and even some self-employed contractors.