David Lepper

Labour Party | Brighton Pavilion

The New Age Conference on Age Diversity

University of Sussex
June 2004

Thank you for inviting me to come along to speak at this important conference to day.

Having known Persia  West and Janie Kavanagh (the organisers) for a while now I  know how personally committed they are to furthering, not only discussion,  but action on the issues which are our subject today.

The quite arbitrary relationships we as a society establish between work and age have long fascinated me.

I had interesting examples before me when I was younger.

After spending all his working life until then as a middle- to -  long-  distance lorry driver, when at the age of 68, my dad decided he’d had enough of that, he certainly didn’t feel that was the end of his working life or of  his economic contribution. He loved gardening and he became a park attendant in Kew Gardens !

My older brother had worked for 21 years in the pits as a miner in the Notts coalfield when, at 42, he decided it was time to go to university. After that he spent the next 20 years as a social worker.

So with those examples of the adaptability which, when passed the usual retirement age and in early middle age, can develop from, in the one case, a personal interest which provided the appropriate skills for the job, and in the other from the opportunities of education and training, I suppose I had fewer qualms than others might have had when at 46, after 23 years of teaching I applied for a new and very different job …..in Parliament.
I didn’t pass the selection procedure that time – the  general election of 1992 – but found that 5 years later those who make the decisions about these things were more enthusiastic about a retired and unemployed  51 year old-than they had been about a younger man attempting to transfer straight from one job to another.

And so I found myself working in a fairly age diverse organisation – late 20s to late 70s – with no fixed retirement age, no job description, no formal training and whatever your age, with an appraisal system that means five years is the absolute maximum job security you can rely on.

However, I wasn’t asked here today to talk about my personal experiences but about the UK and European legislative framework to issues of age in the workplace.

Despite the attempts of some backbench MPs to introduce Private Members Bills on age discrimination, UK governments, until recently have tended to favour the voluntary approach – but, of course , recently at least, a voluntary approach based on the assumption, which I imagine all of us here would share, that a non-discriminatory policy in regard to age in employment is a good thing.

Good for the individual and good for the employer.

Increasingly, I hope, employers realise that basing job decisions purely on age can reduce the choice of candidates. The age profile of the population is changing and the traditional labour pool is growing smaller. So, employers can lose up to a quarter of potential applicants if they impose unnecessary age limits.
The Conference will hear more later about the economic impact from Age Concern.
But what are employers getting when they employ older people ?

Well, although tit is likely that people aged between 50 and state pension age have fewer formal qualifications than those aged 25- 49, there’s a good chance they are getting people with :

• job related skills and experience
• life and people skills
• already prepared for what to expect of work
• motivation and genuine desire to work

Currently just over 6 million people aged between 50 and state pension age are in employment - an employment rate of 69 per cent. The employment rate for men aged 50-64 is 71 per cent and for women aged 50-59 is 66 per cent.

Since 1997 the employment rate of older people has risen faster than that of the working age population as a whole. The average length of time in current employment is much higher for older workers (13 years compared with 7 years for those aged 25-49).
Older workers are more likely to work part time and/or be self employed.

At the heart of this government’s voluntary approach is the Code of Practice on Age Diversity in Employment launched in 1999 after consulting key employer and employee representative groups, including the Employers Forum on Age, Recruitment and Employment Confederation, TUC, CBI, Age Concern and the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development.
 
This voluntary Code sets out good practice standards for non-ageist approaches to recruitment, selection, training and development, promotion, redundancy and retirement.

Evaluation of the Code in 2001 – after 2 years - showed that a third of employers were aware of the Code and that, since its launch, the use of age in selection had halved from 27% to 13%. and three quarters of new equal opportunities policies now include reference to age.

Alongside this is the Department for Work and Pensions Age Positive Campaign team with their website – www.agepositive.gov.uk   - which encourages employers to become Age Positive Champions.  

Age Positive Champions are individuals, businesses, academic institutions, or research or lobby organisations that:

• are committed to tackling age discrimination in their own workplace
• taking practical steps to change their employment practices by research, campaigning or working in partnership with the Age Positive campaign team.

Age Positive Champions play a vital role in the campaign. By promoting their own best practice and highlighting the practical business benefits of having a mixed age workforce, they encourage employers and individuals to tackle age discrimination in the workplace.

To become a Champion you must submit strong evidence of your commitment to Age Positive practice. This might describe what you are doing to encourage age diversity and stamp out age discrimination, including practical details of policies and procedures, a formal age policy, personnel guidance that has had a positive impact on your organisation. You could provide case studies, quotes, age-related success stories and statistics that demonstrate your organisation’s age-friendly recruitment, training and development processes.

For those who don’t know it the website includes case studies by size of organisation from under 50 to over 500 in just about all employment sectors and emphasises that this isn’t just for big companies.

Now all that information aimed at employers mainly.

Of course, through legislation this government has recognised through the New Deal for 50+the special needs of people over 50 who are unemployed and who have been  claiming benefits for at least six months.

New Deal 50 plus has already helped thousands of people back into work, by providing:

• personal advice and support to find a job
• a £1,500 in-work Training Grant.
  
• access to financial support when you're in work, paid as part of the Working Tax Credit. The amount depends on income and circumstances.

New Deal 50 plus can help whether someone wants to move into full-time work or part-time work and can also help those considering starting  up their own businesses.

There should be business benefits from New Deal 50 plus for employers as well. Not only those positive attributes I’ve already mentioned but also-
 
An employer who recruits an individual who is eligible for New Deal 50 plus may be able to access a government funded grant of up to £1,500 to help train the new employee.

This can be used towards the costs of gaining an NVQ, getting some computer lessons, going on a health and safety training course or any other work related training.

So you can, as I suspect you know, tell the local local Jobcentre Plus that you are interested in employing and training an individual eligible for New Deal 50 plus and provide them with details of the job vacancy.

• Ask them to refer to you people who are eligible for New Deal 50 plus.
• Agree with the individual you employ (who should be receiving the 50 plus element of the Working Tax Credit) that the training you will provide will be funded using their New Deal 50 plus Training Grant.
• Complete a Single Training Plan (ask your Jobcentre contact for the form) and ask your new employee to sign it.
• Send the completed form to the Jobcentre, and they will tell you if the application is approved.
• When the training has been completed, the agreed grant will be paid.

Of course, New Deal 50 plus can also offer advice on Self-Employment.

Many of you here will know better than I that starting your own business is a big step. You need to be sure that you understand the implications of working on your own and where you can go for the support and advice that will help make your business a success.

Business Link, or banks’ small business services will have advisers who will listen to your ideas, give you advice, and help you build your business plan. And Jobcentreplus can also help with information about business start-up courses that can help .

Now I can’t resist making a party political point even if I shouldn’t.

Currently the opposition’s policy is to scrap New Deal to help fund a short term across the board pension increase, which I  suspect reveals an important philosophical difference about the ways in which the government and the opposition think about older people and employment.

I would also add here that for employees there are also training and learning opportunities available through the government’s Union Learning Fund set up in 1998 through which 28,000 people have benefited from workplace learning from basic skills training to advanced professional development. And there is also Learndirect. 

Before I turn finally to European context I should mention the announcement made by Andrew Smith, Secretary of State for Work and pension to the House of Commons on 24th February about Initiatives to encourage people to work into later life. He said “The whole thrust of the proposals is to give people new and attractive options to work beyond 65 when they want to…

Together with our plans to stamp out age discrimination and to allow people to work part time while drawing a pension, these initiatives will encourage many people to work into later life, and all of us will benefit from their contribution.

"Working beyond 65 must remain a matter of choice. We want to give everyone the choice to boost their pension by working for longer when it suits them to do so."

Let me now, finally, turn to Europe.

In October 2000, the Government supported the European Directive on Equal Treatment – Directive 2000/78/EC and implementing age legislation by 2006. A six year implementation period was agreed. This allows the Government time to prepare clear, workable and beneficial age legislation, in consultation with individuals, employers and expert groups.

The Government has been consulting on how discrimination in employment and vocational training on grounds of age can be made illegal. The Government’s consultation Equality and Diversity: Age Matters sought views on proposals for the implementation of new anti-discrimination law.

There are a number of complex and sensitive issues which need to be addressed and resolved so that the eventual legislation is practical and helpful to employers and employees. The Government will consult on draft age discrimination regulations covering employment and training, prior to publication of the final regulations.

The Government is committed to giving employers and individuals as much time as possible to prepare for age discrimination legislation coming into force on 1st October 2006.

In the meantime, the Department for Work and Pensions is working with leading employer and employee representative organisations to prepare more detailed guidance for employers, business advisers, HR specialists and trade unions on adopting age positive employment practices, particularly flexible employment and retirement practices that will support the retention of older workers.

Early in 2001 the Government set up the Age Advisory Group (AAG). The group includes representatives from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), the Institute of Management (IM), Scottish Enterprise, Small Business Service, the Trade Union Confederation (TUC), Employers Forum on Age (EFA), Age Concern, Society of Chief Personnel Officers (SoCPO), National Council of National Training Organisations and the Third Age Employment Network (TAEN). This group of experts from a diverse range of organisations has been providing valuable guidance on how to implement age discrimination legislation and the impact it will have on employers.

Legislation, covering age discrimination in employment and vocational training, will be in place by late 2006. Draft regulations and supporting guidance will be published before then, to give people time to prepare. Employers, both in the public and private sectors, will have to adopt age positive practices. They generally will no longer be able to recruit, train, promote or retire people on the basis of age. For young workers this should open up more opportunities in work particularly as training and promotion opportunities will not be limited to seniority.

For older workers this should open up new opportunities in competing for jobs, and in staying in work longer. It is likely that compulsory retirement ages will be unlawful, except where employers can show they are objectively justified. Individuals will therefore need to plan when to retire to meet their own needs. They will have the opportunity to stay in work longer, as long as they remain able.

For too long older workers have faced the cliff-edge of retirement, valued workers one day, retired the next, regardless of whether they remained competent in their jobs or whether they wanted to work longer, perhaps part-time.

As we see Andrew Smith’s February announcement is part of the strategy by which the Government proposes to create opportunities for older people to stay in work longer through more flexible approaches to retirement:

• allowing people to continue working for the sponsoring employer while drawing their occupational pension;
• developing good practices to ensure that occupational pension rules do not discourage flexible retirement; 
• changing public service pension scheme rules, for all new members initially, to make an unreduced pension payable from 65 rather than 60; and
• more generous increases for deferring state pensions.

People are living longer and want a good standard of living in retirement. Consequently, individuals will need to save more or work longer, or a mixture of both. People should have the choice over how and when they save for retirement, and how long they work.

To plan for retirement, people will need sufficient information to make effective choices. The first step is to provide better information to individuals about their retirement savings. The Government therefore plans to extend the provision of combined pension forecasts, introduce a retirement planner and work with employers to help them give their employees information about flexible retirement and pensions.

Now the government has also made it clear through a statement by Trade and Industry Secretary of State Patricia Hewitt that the remit of the new Equality and Human Rights Commission replacing the Commission for Racial Equality , the Disability Rights Commission and the Equal; Opportunities Commission will extend to age discrimination and has been welcomed by Age Concern.

We’ve been a productive lot we baby boomers.

And even as we approach our sixties – I hope I have indicated that we are helping to ensure that the world is slowly being remodelled with the image not of granddad or grandma in slippers – but rather around the example of  - I believe it was conductor Arturo Toscanini who at the age of  90 signed a new long-term recording contact with RCA Victor looking forward to many more years of fruitful partnership.