Content
Brave New World
Business Not Pleasure
Summertime Blues
All That Glitters...
Casting The Net
Trust Gordon?
It Ain't Over...
One In The Eye
Keep Your Nose Clean
Foreign Affairs
When Is A Car...
Don't Walk Away
Avoiding, The Issue
Brown Is Anti-PC
VAT's Up Doc?
Fuel's Gold
An Age-old Question?
That's Unfair!
Year In Year Out
How Hard To Try?
It's A Rip-Off!
Outlaws Win
Show Some Restraint
Not Our Problem
They Cannot Be Serious?
Merry-Go-Round
Pension Disappointments
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New rules prohibiting age discrimination in employment come into force in October this year. Employers won't be able to use age as a factor in recruiting, promoting, setting pay or giving training. They will also have to have a standard set retirement age which is not lower than 65 until that can be justified by the demands of the job, and they will have to consider requests by employees to work after their set retirement age. As it has just been announced that the State pension won't start until 68 in the future (admittedly some way off), working after 65 will become necessary. If you are an employer, it will be important to check that you are ready for the new rules. You should look at your application forms and recruitment advertising and remove anything that refers to age - or even implies it, such as asking for someone "fresh and dynamic". It's been absolutely standard to ask for a candidate's date of birth, and it won't be allowed any more. You should also check the retirement ages of existing employees, and give them six months' notice of their expected retirement date to give them the chance to ask to work longer. The final version of the rules has removed some of the more onerous requirements of the draft version. You were going to have to arrange a meeting with the employee within two months of the request and announce your decision within 14 days. You still have to have the meeting and tell them, but it's now to be "within a reasonable period" rather than by a set date. |
© Bayar Hughes & Co., 2010.