Age discrimination does not get much media attention in Barbados. However, for a large segment of the Barbadian population, it is a reality being experienced for no other reason than the fact that they have reached a certain age. Switzerland beat out Norway and Sweden for the first place spot this year in an annual…

The EAT says that it was not age discrimination to demote a poor performing partner in a law firm. The ECJ says that a national court must disapply principles of national law that conflict with the general principle of EU law prohibiting age discrimination, and cannot prioritise principles of legal certainty or legitimate expectations instead.…

Statutory Instrument 2007 No. 825 The Employment Equality (Age) (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2007 © Crown Copyright 2007 Statutory Instruments printed from this website are printed under the superintendence and authority of the Controller of HMSO being the Queen’s Printer of Acts of Parliament. The legislation contained on this web site is subject to Crown Copyright…

This guidance note, the final in a series of four on age discrimination, looks at the new law in relation to dismissal and retirement. The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 (S1 2006/1031) will outlaw unjustified indirect and direct discrimination at all stages of the employment relationship, up to and including its end. To view the…

Dinah Rose, barrister of Blackstone Chambers, considers the particular impact of the age regulations on law firms and their treatment of partners, associates and trainees – from recruitment to pay (including lockstep), promotion and retirement. Follow this link to read Dinah’s paper. Back to top

This guidance note, the second in a series of four on age, concentrates on age discrimination issues in recruitment. Directive 2000/78/EC provides a general framework for member states to combat – among other things – age discrimination. Article 3 states that the Directive applies in relation to “conditions for access to employment…including selection criteria and…

This opinion was given in a Spanish case, where a provision of national law is being challenged as incompatible with the Directive on age discrimination. The law in question allows collective agreements to include clauses for compulsory retirement. These clauses are lawful where the only conditions for compulsory retirement are that the employee has reached…

Some of the difficulties with the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 have been raised in a House of Lords debate on 25 October 2006. Baroness Howe of Idlicote questioned the effect of the Regulations on the provision of insured health benefits for employees. The Employers Forum on Age has recently urged the government to consider…

Despite an apparent lacuna in the age regulations, ACAS will provide a full conciliation service in age discrimination claims. Under employment tribunals rules (see rule 22, schedule 1 of the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2004)) ACAS officers are obliged to seek to help parties reach a settlement of the claim. The…

The government has launched the promised consultation on amending the pension provisions of the age regulations to make them ‘clearer and more operable by schemes and employers’. New amending regulations have been published, which aim to expand the pension exemptions in the main Age Regulations, reflecting the DWP’s intention to allow pension schemes to continue…