The Impact of new legislation

"Seeking new employee, young, not older than 35", is going to be a thing of the past, as from October age discrimination is as unlawful as sex or racial discrimination.

Jobs have to be advertised on the merit of the job description and set of skills rather than the age of the person expected to perform the advertised duties. There are very few jobs where age may play a role, perhaps some jobs require a certain physical fitness, which cannot possibly be performed by someone over a certain age.

The most important impact is that employees are no longer denied training because of their age. Rightly so because mental agility is not necessarily better because someone is below the age of 35.

I remember vividly when I asked a local women's group for a place on a computer course, when I was over the age of 40, to be told that I was too old to go on it and that only people below the age of 35 are mentally flexible enough to learn the skill. This was a free course and provided by a local government sponsored women's group, this happened only 7 years ago. That really hurt and I thought, well the course can't be very good then and taught myself instead, the result of which is this website. Incidentally my website is now better than the one of the group denying me the training.

Age related minimum wage is still available to stop employers from taking on young people because they have to pay them the same as older employees.

The emitting discrimination provides the basis for a positive atmosphere in the workplace, diversity and new ideas.

A guide for good practise can be found here from ACAS.

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