A huge culture change is required within workplaces to change long-standing attitudes towards age discrimination, employment lawyers were told last month.

A discussion at the Employment Lawyers Association conference in Newcastle on the effects of the age discrimination legislation coming into force in October 2006 emphasised the need for all employers to change their attitudes and employment policies or risk breaking the law. Law firms will be affected by the provisions like any other employer.


Michael Rubenstein, the founder and editor of the Industrial Relations Law Reports, who chaired the session, said: ‘Age is the final frontier in discrimination law. Employers have learned to their cost how long it takes to change sexist and racist workplace cultures. Sensible employers will be tackling age stereotypes now and will not take the risk of putting this off until age discrimination law takes effect. The message is that time is running out on ageism.’


Mr Rubenstein said the panel highlighted several issues which employers need to consider. These include amending harassment policies to prohibit ageist bullying and offensive jokes about age.


‘It is already clear that the definition of harassment within the age discrimination legislation will mirror that used in existing discrimination law and will cover a range of behaviour from belittling remarks that someone is too young to be able to do their job to birthday cards suggesting that the recipient has reached an age where they might consider exploring erectile dysfunction drugs.


‘The problem for employers is that while some employees might tolerate this kind of behaviour or find it amusing, others might find it degrading or humiliating, especially if it was repeated after it became clear that it was unwelcome.’


It is also important to alter any ageist practices now, ‘as an employer that has to admit that there was an ageist workplace culture in 2005 is going to have a hard time convincing an employment tribunal that everything suddenly changed in October 2006’.


Mr Rubenstein warned that getting age discrimination wrong could be very costly. ‘There will be no upper limit on potential compensation, unlike unfair dismissal, which is subject to a statutory cap. Unless, and until, there is a major culture change, highly paid senior executives in their 40s and 50s who are dismissed for age-related reasons will often find it difficult to ever obtain comparable jobs. This means that employers could be liable for huge awards of compensation, covering many years of lost income resulting from the discrimination.’


However, employers will also need to be sensitive to the fact that the law is intended to be age neutral, meaning it is not just older workers who will be covered, he said. Basic employment practices will also be affected. Employers will have to ensure that recruitment advertisements are age neutral – no more seeking ‘young, dynamic individuals’ – while the date of birth will have to be removed from application forms, as it suggests age will be taken into account.