<em>Yo have powerful rights in law now. Not a lot of people know that.</em></p> <p>You may have seen in the papers recently that the TV presenter Selina Scott took legal action against Channel 5 for discrimination against her. Her claim was that she was supposed to be maternity cover for a younger presenter, but was dropped for being too old (at 57). Channel Five had to apologise and pay her a very substantial amount of money in settlement. She stood up for her right under law not to be discriminated against because of her age. </p> <p>The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations have been with us since 2006. Surprisingly few people know that age discrimination is now on the same level as racial or gender discrimination. <br /> <br /> The law helps with our being disadvantaged at work or in employment practices.  Employers have to stop age discrimination. It makes no sense, in any case, for us to be denied jobs, or lose jobs, simply on the basis of age. Several big <br /> employers have now shown in practice that older workers perform better.<br /> <br /> The legislation says that there can be NO AGE LIMITS on offers of jobs and you cannot be asked to give your date of birth (!!!)<br /> <br /> You must be equally encouraged have TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES along with everyone else.</p> <p>You must have equal opportunities for PROMOTION on the basis of ability, not age. </p> <p>Employers making people REDUNDANT can’t use age as the reason to lose some people and keep others.</p> <p>Until recently we had the very strange situation in which employers were <u>required</u> to set a RETIREMENT AGE. This may have made sense when people really were on the way out of life at 65-70. Now we get our second wind at that age, and the law says: we can’t be made to retire before 65, and there’s no longer any requirement to have a retirement age limit at all.<br /> <br /> <em>This article is just a start to let you know about your rights regarding age discrimination. They go further, and this quick description cannot be relied on without learning the facts. Have a look at <a href="http://www.direct.gov.uk/">www.direct.gov.uk</a> and the Equality and Human Rights Commission site <a href="http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/">www.equalityhumanrights.com</a> to find out more. Go to The Citizens Advice Bureau <a href="http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/">www.citizensadvice.org.uk</a> for both information and help.</em></p> 2009-09-17T18:03:06-07:00 1 2008-12-10T18:03:52-08:00