Summary of Age Legislation

The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 prohibit unjustified age discrimination, harassment and victimisation on grounds of age, of people of any age, young or old.

This applies to employment, including ex-employees, and vocational training and covers the private and public sectors. The regulations cover recruitment, terms and conditions, promotions, transfers, dismissals, training and retirement.

The legislation means:

  • there is a national default retirement age of 65, making compulsory retirement below 65 unlawful unless objectively justified.
  • employees have the right to request to work beyond 65 or any other retirement age set by the company. The employer has a duty to consider such requests.
  • employers can be responsible for the acts of employees who discriminate on grounds of age.
  • upper age limits on unfair dismissal and redundancy are removed giving older workers the same rights to claim unfair dismissal or receive a redundancy payment as younger workers, unless there is a genuine retirement.
  • the age limits for Statutory Sick Pay, Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Adoption Pay and Statutory Paternity Pay are removed, so that the legislation for all four statutory payments applies in exactly the same way to all.
  • the lower and upper age limits in the statutory redundancy scheme are removed, but leaves the current age-banded system in place.
  • exemptions for many age-based rules in occupational pension schemes are still valid.
  • pay and non-pay benefits which depend on length of service requirements of 5 years or less or which recognise and reward loyalty and experience and motivate staff can still continue.

There are limited circumstances when discrimination may be lawful. It’s not unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of age if:

• there is an objective justification for treating people differently – for example, it might be necessary to fix a maximum age for the recruitment or promotion of employees. This maximum age might reflect the training requirements of the post or the need for a reasonable period of employment before retirement. You would need to provide real evidence of your justification, not just an assertion that this is the case.

• where a person is older than, or within six months of, the employer’s normal retirement age, or 65 if the employer doesn’t have one, there is a specific exemption allowing employers to refuse to recruit that person.

• the discrimination is covered by one of the exceptions or exemptions given in the regulations – for example pay related to the National Minimum Wage (paid on different age bands)

• there is a genuine occupational requirement (GOR) that a person must be of a certain age – for example, if you are producing a play which has parts for older or younger characters.

Service, Goods and Facilities

Currently age legislation doesn’t apply to services, goods or facilities. However, the government is consulting on how to do this and will bring in legislation, probably, in 2010.

Even though it’s not required by law, the council (Executive and Corporate Management Team) decided to include age as one of the six areas it will promote equality on in employment and services. Age is also included in the Equality Framework for Local Government which the council works to.

Further Guidance

The Commission for Equality and Human Rights champions equalities and enforces UK equalities legislation. See their website for information and advice on rights and legislation.

ACAS have produced guidance for employers on age legislation – see their website for more info (downloads are on the right hand side)

Look in the equalities folder on the intranet for:

  • Making Connections: A guide on making communication accessible and inclusive
  • Equality profiling questions to ask
  • Equality profile of York
  • A database of community groups to use when carrying out consultation
  • A list of accessible venues in York city centre
  • An Equality Impact Assessment toolkit and guides on equality issues

Find the equalities folder in Council / Policies, standards and procedures