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Has the Age Discrimination Act worked?
Accountancy Age
04 October 2007
Has the Age Discrimination Act achieved what it set out to do?
It’s now over a year since the age discrimination regulations have been in place. But how much has improved and has the new law achieved its aims?
We know the key issues for the profession are attitudes to recruitment and retirement. The Big Four in particular are known for their university ‘milk round’ and ‘graduate recruitment’ drives, which have traditionally focussed almost exclusively on recent university graduates. So it’s difficult for an older graduate to break in.
At the other end of the career path, many accountants find themselves being pushed out and forcibly retired in their fifties for no apparent reason other than their age and the perceptions that go with it.
A quick review of the graduate recruitment (and indeed general recruitment) pages of the Big Four shows that the focus is still very much on the young.
The faces are predominantly young and the profiles tend to be of people who look under 30. The snapshot shows men and women of different races and nationalities and people with disabilities but noticeably less focus on age diversity.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that policies and procedures may have been reviewed but the trickle-down effect into actual practice is slow.
This is no different from the other pieces of anti-discrimination legislation, which all took time to bed down before employers realised that systemic changes were needed in order to comply with the new laws.
It also takes a while for employees and job applicants to become aware of their rights and have the confidence to take claims.
Statistics from the Employment Tribunal service show that 972 age discrimination claims were taken in the first six months the law was in force. That is a fraction of the sex, race and disability discrimination claims taken but, interestingly, is higher than the number of claims taken for discrimination on grounds of religion or belief (648) or sexual orientation (470) for the entire year.
A key point is that you do not need to be in a minority or a group traditionally discriminated against to bring a claim of age discrimination. For the ‘pale, male and stale’ accountancy world this is a potential time-bomb.
There is no cap on compensation for age discrimination claims - good news for high-earners who are being pushed out in favour of younger (and possibly cheaper) blood.
We expect to see a significant rise in age claims in the coming year, particularly in the areas of age-related recruitment and dismissal decisions, retirement and certain age-related benefits.
Claire Dawson is a solicitor at Russell Jones & Walker