Age discrimination has become a much more significant issue in employment law in the UK with the advent of the Equality Act. Cases brought under this head of employment law are more common and place a big burden on employers, having to justify almost every decision made.
Employers need to be particularly careful about recruitment, as many small business employers are not even aware that they can discriminate against non-employees who can still take them to the Employment tribunal, ending often in a compromise agreement settlement. Great care should be taken in the recruitment process.
Another common misconception is that age discrimination only relates to older people. In the Uk economy at the moment, there are record numbers of the young who are unemployed, and age discrimination can occur with them just as much as for older people. One distinguishing feature perhaps here is that many young people are refused for employment due to lack of experience. Even though this is a classic “chicken and egg” scenario in that the ypung can’t get experiuence if they are not given a chance, an employer can perhaps explain away a decision to overlook a young person on this ground, but proper process should nonetheless be followed, as paper records are very important in this area also.
Whether you are a business facing an age discrimination issue or claim or you feel you have been discriminated against, we would suggest you seek professional advice from solicitors. More advice and information will follow on this page in due course.