Four out of five give thumbs down to age discrimination

18 September 2006

Over four out of five people (85%) think that age discrimination should be illegal, according to a new survey from Age Concern. 

New legislation coming into effect on 1 October will offer protection to under 65s in work and training, as well as those looking for work. However, the Government has failed to give protection for those over 65, and the law will still allow employers to set a mandatory retirement age at 65 or above.

These new results show that massive numbers do not support age discrimination and add pressure on to the Government to outlaw age discrimination against all people and scrap mandatory retirement ages. Last week (14 September), the TUC overwhelmingly supported the abolition of all default retirement ages following a motion from the University and College Union.

Worryingly although these new age regulations come into force just two weeks from today, more than three in four (77%) of the population does not know that employers can force people over 65 to retire even if the employee does not want to.

Gordon Lishman, Director General of Age Concern, said:

“This is an ageist anti-ageism law. It is like disability discrimination legislation that penalises someone for being too disabled.

“Our new research shows the clear unpopularity of forced retirement and the low level of public awareness of the new age discrimination law. The Government should reinstate their original commitment: to give all people a chance to be recruited, trained and employed on their merits not on their birth date.

“Society and legislators have rightly outlawed sexism, racism and homophobia. Now is the time to outlaw all forms of ageism in the work place. It is wrong, it doesn’t make sense for either the employer or employees and it is bad for the UK’s society and economy. Mandatory retirement ages need to be abolished, and they need to be abolished now.”

Attitudes to and knowledge of the new age discrimination rules are unaffected by how close someone is to 65 – people of all ages are equally critical of the mandatory retirement ages.