June 2006

Age Discrimination

Age discrimination in employment and vocational training regulations come into force on 1 October 2006.

The regulations prohibit unjustified direct and indirect age discrimination, and all harassment and victimisation on grounds of age, of people of any age, young or old.

As well as applying to retirement they:

 remove the upper age limit for unfair dismissal and redundancy rights

 remove the age limits for Statutory Sick Pay, Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Adoption Pay and Statutory Paternity Pay

 remove the lower and upper age limits in the statutory redundancy scheme

 provide exemptions for many age-based rules in occupational pension schemes

It is important that all employers review their existing arrangements to consider the impact of the above changes.