Businesses advised to prepare for age discrimination law

Friday 26 August 2016

A local law firm says companies need to prepare for the effects of an age discrimination law that will come into effect later this year.

From September the Employment and Discrimination Tribunal will be able to make awards of up to £10,000 where complaints of age discrimination or discrimination-related harassment are upheld.

In particular Ogier employment lawyer Daniel Reed says employers need to be aware of the effect the law will have on retirement age. At present, employees can be effectively forced to retire when they reach pensionable age without fear of unfair dismissal claims.

The new law will make that illegal – but there’s going to be a two-year grace period to allow businesses to get their house in order.

According to Mr Reed “the next two years will be an important time – if employers do not review and reconsider handbooks, policies and contracts, they could live to regret it.”

He goes on to say: “it might be that employees approaching pension age have to change duties for health and safety reasons, or because of employee performance, or because of career structuring or promotion opportunities for colleagues. Policies and handbooks need to be reviewed with this change in mind, along with the general anti-age discrimination provisions that come into force from the start of next month.”