Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed! (C.M.Schultz)

On Monday we had some training on The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006. It appears that in the UK we have been playing catch-up with most of Europe, many of whom already have laws and guidelines in place and have done so for some time. However we are finally getting there with our own laws coming into play later in the year.

Age discrimination is an important and complex issue, the stereotypical attitude that has for a long time been completely unacceptable with regards to race and sex is still regularly applied to age. Let us hope that the act of age discrimination becomes as taboo as other forms of discrimination now are and does not simply become more subtle!

Key facts:

• The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 come into force on 1 October 2006.
• The regulations cover people of all ages, both old and young
• The regulation will ban age discrimination in terms of recruitment, promotion and training, ban unjustified retirement ages of below 65 and remove the current age limit for unfair dismissal and redundancy rights. 
• They will also introduce a right for employees to request working beyond retirement age and a duty on employers to consider that request and a new requirement for employers to give at least six months notice to employees about their intended retirement date so that individuals can plan better for retirement, and be confident that "retirement" is not being used as cover for unfair dismissal.

For more information go to:

• Age Positive (Part of the Department for Work and Pensions)
• The Employers Forum on Age
• ACAS