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Introduction | Legislation I Facts and Figures 

Legislation on age is scheduled to come into force on the 1 October 2006 and will give individuals new rights not to be discriminated against because of their age.

The new legislation will cover areas of employment and vocational training and will:

• outlaw mandatory retirement ages below age 65 (except where they can be objectively justified)
• allow those under 65 to retire early if they wish
• give those over 65 the right to request to continue working
• be reviewed in 2011 to consider whether it is still necessary to maintain mandatory retirement ages at all
• ban unjustified age discrimination in recruitment, promotion and other employment terms, as well as in vocational training.

The legislation is being produced as a result of Government supporting the European Directive on Equal Treatment in October 2000, which requires all EU Member States to introduce legislation prohibiting direct and indirect discrimination at work on the grounds of age in employment and training. A six year implementation period was given before legislation had to be enforced.

Age 2006 Age - Online Learning Toolkit

Age Diversity Code of Practice 1999

The Government introduced a Code of Practice on Age Diversity which was published in 1999. It is a set of good practice standards designed to help employers recognise business benefits of an age-diverse workforce. It encourages employers to make decisions that do not discriminate on the basis of age and says that:    

• recruitment, selection and promotion should be on the basis of the skills, abilities and potential needed to do the job.
• training and development should encourage all staff to take advantage of relevant training opportunities.
• redundancy should be based on objective, job-related criteria.
• retirement schemes should be applied fairly, taking individual and business needs into account.