The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, commonly known as Acas, has issued new guidance for employers and managers on age discrimination, which is surprisingly one of the most common forms of unfair treatment in the workplace.
Over-50s now make up nearly a third of the UK workforce and no matter what the age, can experience discrimination based on their age.
The guidance explains how age discrimination can occur, how it can be prevented, how to deal with it if it does happen and how different treatment because of age can be allowed in certain situations, what we call objective justification.
The overview of age discrimination includes links to the following factsheets:
- Age discrimination: key points for the workplace. See http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/o/1/Age_discrimination_key_points_for_the_workplace.pdf;
- Age discrimination: ten obligations for employers. See http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/p/d/Age_discrimination_ten_obligations_for_employers.pdf; and
- Age discrimination: top ten myths. See http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/p/l/Age_discrimination_top_ten_myths.pdf.
The guidance also gives details of the key areas where age discrimination may happen, points out the danger of stereotyping because of age and gives examples of the type of ageist language that could be perceived by the individual addressed as discriminatory.
It is very important to note that in discrimination, it is how the recipient perceives the words, which matters more than the intention of the person saying them.
There is also a short video on the nine protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.
To find out more on this and how it affects you, contact Emma Hewitt today on 0808 166 8860 or email e.hewitt@sydneymitchell.co.uk.
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