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9 out of ten employers do not discriminate on age - 08-08-2007 | The attitudes of employers toward older workers are changing Nine out of ten companies now claim they will not discriminate
The attitudes of employers toward older workers are changing, according to a new Government survey of 2,000 employers.
Increased awareness of new age discrimination laws, which came into force last October, has prompted employers to review their recruitment, retirement and selection practices, and to reconsider fixed retirement age policies. Nine out of ten companies interviewed now claim they will not discriminate.
This new awareness by employers is partly due to the Government's 'Be Ready' initiative, which distributed information to over 1.4 million employers before and after the new law's implementation. It provided help and guidance on the required changes to company policy to comply with the new regulations. This is good news for older workers.
And hopefully it is not just about employers complying with a law because they will get hit in their pocket book if they don't. Encouragingly, what also appears to be happening is that more and more employers now recognise the benefits of a spread of ages among employees. Research indicates that older workers can be strongly committed and deliver value for money for employers.
As the age of retirement changes it is important that people adjust their attitudes to age, and the success of the 'Be Ready' campaign is only part of a wider campaign by the Government to encourage people to be 'Age Positive'.
We cannot be complacent about these successes with employer attitudes. There is still work to be done if we are to challenge and change prejudices, stereotypes and discriminatory practices in the workplace. Some of these ought to have been confined to history long ago, but changing ingrained attitudes takes time. Laws can provide a lead, as they did in combating workplace prejudices against women, ethnic minorities and the gay community, but we know that even today reservoirs of prejudice remain to be tackled. So, reducing prejudice against older people will be a major effort by the Government for years to come, an effort which must be sustained.
Today, many workers are no longer willing to accept that they must retire at a certain age. More often they want to be able to choose when to retire. Increasingly, when given the choice, many opt to stay in work. Indeed, people above the State Pension Age have the fastest growing employment rate, with more than 1.2 million currently in full or part time jobs in the UK.
It is important that this positive trend continues.
Around 42 per cent of the UK population is over fifty years old and this figure is expected to increase by a further ten per cent by 2041. In economic terms, allowing employees to continue to develop their careers into later life will clearly be necessary, as well as hugely beneficial to both individual employers and the nation and economy as a whole.
Enabling those who want to stay at work to do so is important because we are also facing the challenge of people living longer and therefore spending longer in retirement. A longer life should be welcome, and we must ensure we do not pass the cost of increased longevity on to our children or grandchildren.
The Pensions Act 2007 gradually increases State Pension Age to 68 by 2046. There's now broad consensus that people will need to work longer in the future - and it is important that employers embrace the skills and potential of older workers to help meet these challenges.
Other countries face similar problems as the baby boomer generation retires and the cost of that retirement needs to be met by reduced numbers of people in work.
Currently in the UK there are 4 people working for each retiree, in just a few decades it will be 2 people working for each person in retirement. That is a big social change. Politicians often get knocked, but it is a tribute to the political consensus that developed around the Turner Report on Pensions that Parliament was able to raise the state pension age without a major row. A leading Australian politician recently told me how difficult it was to even discuss the issue domestically. Other countries like Canada are attracting increasing numbers of younger workers through immigration, to help compensate for the Baby Boomer retirement. This would be unworkable in the UK. But we can make the difference through changing attitudes and working practices.
The Age Positive campaign continues to work directly with employers and trade organisations to remove the outdated and inaccurate perceptions that still exist in the workplace. Employers are increasingly recognising that prejudice against older workers is not just unacceptable but bad for business - after all many older people are their customers - and they are making changes to their recruitment and retention practices to ensure that the focus is on getting and keeping the best people for the job.
The age discrimination legislation and the changes outlined in the new Pensions Act are important steps. We must all continue to challenge attitudes and expose prejudice. And in doing we must continue to demonstrate that there is a clear business case for employing and retaining older workers, building on the progress of increased awareness and deepening consensus against discrimination.
| Age Positive Survey
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