I
Introduction
The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations of 2006 is a piece of legislation that was developed in the United Kingdom in order to tame employers from misusing their employees in any way. It is was as a result of consultations with member of states of the European Union who felt in 2000 that they needed a legislation to contain the issue of discrimination in the workplace on ground of age. The UK government therefore took the initiative to first tract the issue and came up with this legislation, ‘Employment Equality (Age) Regulations of 2006’. The legislation prohibits employers who discriminate against employees on grounds of age when they are working in their companies or organizations. The employment regulations follow other similar legislations that were drafted and which concerned racial, sexual or religious discrimination in the workplace . All these regulations offer broad justifications and other exceptions that have been criticized for providing too many compromises on what could be otherwise unlawful in the country.
The most significant issues that are being addressed by this legislation are; the provision of a default national retirement age that will beset at 65 years and which will be retained for at least five years. It also addresses the ability of employees to request work beyond the retirement age by following the set procedures in the regulation. In the Unites States for example, the victimization and discrimination of employees in grounds of their age has been illegal for the last 40 years and experts say that the UK is acting too late. The legislation should have been in place two decades ago.
The regulation was approved by parliament and finalized in April 2006 and the government effected it on 1st October, 2006. This age regulation implements the age discrimination aspects of the EU framework, ‘Directive on Equal Treatment in jobs Employment and Occupation’. This regulation covers all aspects of age discrimination and not just the discriminate of old people.
The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 makes it unlawful to discriminate against any jobseeker, casual worker, permanent worker or even trainees on grounds of their ages despite their origin, trace or colour. Working in some environments which are hazardous to human beings is also not allowed. The retirement issue is what is critically addressed in this regulation. It does not make it mandatory to retire at the age of 65, but not beyond that. Although some people could argue from the perspective of sports where footballers retire when they are in their thirties, but no body can deny them the opportunity of playing in the premier league when they in their 40s. This means that employers can retain employees who are beyond the retirement age on justifiable grounds such as in the case of profound experience and in delicate sectors.
Since the mandatory age bracket of 65 years was developed long time ago, the government now intendeds to push further an amendment to the regulation in order to put the default retirement age to between 69 and 70 years. The main reason for this is that the general life expectancy for both men and women in UK has improved tremendously to about 78 years. With a rapidly decreasing state pension and an aging population, the regulation is timely in order to allow more people to contribute to the national cake.
Why do we need the Age Regulation?
This is one of the questions every man and woman not only in the UK but also in the EU is asking. In fact, previous studies have shown that age is the commonest form of harassment in the workplace and the trend is rising. This has necessitated the drafting of a legislation to contain the situation. At the moment, there are laws and legislation that have been put in place to check discrimination on grounds of race, religion, sex, gender or disability but none has been developed to address the issue of age. The Age regulation is not a law to keep older people in their workplace until the time to retire but it is a law that will give all employees irrespective of their age equal rights. It is specifically designed to meet the challenges of changing working environments and diverse working groups. It will be more attractable to the youth who will be confident of earning the same salary with the older people working in the same capacity.
Research has also shown that all organizations, businesses and companies benefit greatly from a diverse workforce not only in terms of race and culture but most importantly in terms of age. The younger generation learn quickly from the older people while the older ones get new ideas from the energetic younger generation. This will result in a mutual relationship. This is the basis for this regulation as it identifies the benefits of equal opportunities and rights of all people within the company. It also comes inline with the United Nation’s call for equality among all humanity. In addition, any form of victimization and discrimination regardless of its nature will lead to underperformance of employees, low morale, diminished job satisfaction attributes and greater employee turnover.
Direct discrimination
The age regulation outlaws direct age discrimination of all sorts with reference to vocation, manpower training and development, less favourable treatment of employees on grounds of age, higher education institutions, recruitment and activities of trade unions. In collective agreements, unlawful age discrimination is deemed to be void and null. In some other references, the law apply to other equality ground contrasts that have shown that there is evidence of justifications on grounds of humanity and business. This regulation therefore is set to achieve some legitimate goals and objectives in ensuring that the whole issue of discrimination is eliminated.
It will therefore be unlawful to treat employees in a manner to suggest that direct discrimination has occurred. This form of discrimination can be perpetrated through ;
o Failure or deciding not employ people of a particular age group
o Unfair dismissal
o Turning promotion opportunities down
o Failure to offer training and development opportunities to certain groups of people
o Giving the people lesser terms and conditions for jobs. This can be in terms of travel benefits, compensation etc.
The legislation does prohibit an employer from discriminating against a employment job seeker by refusing to employ them when they are almost six months to the retirement age which is 65 years.
Indirect discrimination
The age regulation also prohibits any form of indirect discrimination. This can be in terms of unfair practice, provision or criterion that puts people at a particular age group, at a disadvantage. Unlike the direct discrimination, indirect discrimination will not be deemed unlawful if the employer proves beyond reasonable doubt that his or her action is justified.
Harassment
Any form of harassment that that is based on ground of age is specifically outlawed by this regulation. The regulation defines unwanted conduct that violates the dignity of any employee as unlawful is punishable irrespective of the person who committed it. It continues to illustrate that any hostile, intimidating, offensive, humiliating or degrading environment that is subjected to any employee will be unlawful. Contrary to the two forms of discrimination above, the regulation cannot justify anything to do with harassment.
The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations of 2006 is a piece of legislation that was developed in the United Kingdom in order to tame employers from misusing their employees in any way. It is was as a result of consultations with member of states of the European Union who felt in 2000 that they needed a legislation to contain the issue of discrimination in the workplace on ground of age. The UK government therefore took the initiative to first tract the issue and came up with this legislation, ‘Employment Equality (Age) Regulations of 2006’. The legislation prohibits employers who discriminate against employees on grounds of age when they are working in their companies or organizations. The employment regulations follow other similar legislations that were drafted and which concerned racial, sexual or religious discrimination in the workplace . All these regulations offer broad justifications and other exceptions that have been criticized for providing too many compromises on what could be otherwise unlawful in the country.
The most significant issues that are being addressed by this legislation are; the provision of a default national retirement age that will beset at 65 years and which will be retained for at least five years. It also addresses the ability of employees to request work beyond the retirement age by following the set procedures in the regulation. In the Unites States for example, the victimization and discrimination of employees in grounds of their age has been illegal for the last 40 years and experts say that the UK is acting too late. The legislation should have been in place two decades ago.
The regulation was approved by parliament and finalized in April 2006 and the government effected it on 1st October, 2006. This age regulation implements the age discrimination aspects of the EU framework, ‘Directive on Equal Treatment in jobs Employment and Occupation’. This regulation covers all aspects of age discrimination and not just the discriminate of old people.
The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 makes it unlawful to discriminate against any jobseeker, casual worker, permanent worker or even trainees on grounds of their ages despite their origin, trace or colour. Working in some environments which are hazardous to human beings is also not allowed. The retirement issue is what is critically addressed in this regulation. It does not make it mandatory to retire at the age of 65, but not beyond that. Although some people could argue from the perspective of sports where footballers retire when they are in their thirties, but no body can deny them the opportunity of playing in the premier league when they in their 40s. This means that employers can retain employees who are beyond the retirement age on justifiable grounds such as in the case of profound experience and in delicate sectors.
Since the mandatory age bracket of 65 years was developed long time ago, the government now intendeds to push further an amendment to the regulation in order to put the default retirement age to between 69 and 70 years. The main reason for this is that the general life expectancy for both men and women in UK has improved tremendously to about 78 years. With a rapidly decreasing state pension and an aging population, the regulation is timely in order to allow more people to contribute to the national cake.
Why do we need the Age Regulation?
This is one of the questions every man and woman not only in the UK but also in the EU is asking. In fact, previous studies have shown that age is the commonest form of harassment in the workplace and the trend is rising. This has necessitated the drafting of a legislation to contain the situation. At the moment, there are laws and legislation that have been put in place to check discrimination on grounds of race, religion, sex, gender or disability but none has been developed to address the issue of age. The Age regulation is not a law to keep older people in their workplace until the time to retire but it is a law that will give all employees irrespective of their age equal rights. It is specifically designed to meet the challenges of changing working environments and diverse working groups. It will be more attractable to the youth who will be confident of earning the same salary with the older people working in the same capacity.
Research has also shown that all organizations, businesses and companies benefit greatly from a diverse workforce not only in terms of race and culture but most importantly in terms of age. The younger generation learn quickly from the older people while the older ones get new ideas from the energetic younger generation. This will result in a mutual relationship. This is the basis for this regulation as it identifies the benefits of equal opportunities and rights of all people within the company. It also comes inline with the United Nation’s call for equality among all humanity. In addition, any form of victimization and discrimination regardless of its nature will lead to underperformance of employees, low morale, diminished job satisfaction attributes and greater employee turnover.
Direct discrimination
The age regulation outlaws direct age discrimination of all sorts with reference to vocation, manpower training and development, less favourable treatment of employees on grounds of age, higher education institutions, recruitment and activities of trade unions. In collective agreements, unlawful age discrimination is deemed to be void and null. In some other references, the law apply to other equality ground contrasts that have shown that there is evidence of justifications on grounds of humanity and business. This regulation therefore is set to achieve some legitimate goals and objectives in ensuring that the whole issue of discrimination is eliminated.
It will therefore be unlawful to treat employees in a manner to suggest that direct discrimination has occurred. This form of discrimination can be perpetrated through ;
o Failure or deciding not employ people of a particular age group
o Unfair dismissal
o Turning promotion opportunities down
o Failure to offer training and development opportunities to certain groups of people
o Giving the people lesser terms and conditions for jobs. This can be in terms of travel benefits, compensation etc.
The legislation does prohibit an employer from discriminating against a employment job seeker by refusing to employ them when they are almost six months to the retirement age which is 65 years.
Indirect discrimination
The age regulation also prohibits any form of indirect discrimination. This can be in terms of unfair practice, provision or criterion that puts people at a particular age group, at a disadvantage. Unlike the direct discrimination, indirect discrimination will not be deemed unlawful if the employer proves beyond reasonable doubt that his or her action is justified.
Harassment
Any form of harassment that that is based on ground of age is specifically outlawed by this regulation. The regulation defines unwanted conduct that violates the dignity of any employee as unlawful is punishable irrespective of the person who committed it. It continues to illustrate that any hostile, intimidating, offensive, humiliating or degrading environment that is subjected to any employee will be unlawful. Contrary to the two forms of discrimination above, the regulation cannot justify anything to do with harassment.
By Yvonne Miller
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