What is ageism?

Ageism, discrimination based on a person’s age, has a dramatic detrimental effect on older people but this is often not acknowledged.

We want to highlight age discrimination as a major issue that needs to be addressed in order to ensure the fair treatment of older people.

Some of these situations may be familiar to you:

 Losing your job because of your age  Being refused interest-free credit a new credit card or car insurance because of your age  Finding that an organisations attitude to older people results in you receiving a lower quality of service  Age limits on benefits such as Disability Living Allowance  A doctor deciding not to refer you to a consultant because you are ‘too old

Ageism is illegal in employment, training and education.

Why is Ageism unacceptable?

Ageism is not obvious. You may not be aware it's happening but it may result in you receiving different treatment.

Until the Equality Bill comes into force in 2012, making ageism unlawful in the provision of products and services where it has negative or harmful consequences, there is no legal remedy to stop it. But we’re determined to highlight its effects and campaign against it.

Ageism - often referred to as age discrimination - exists in many areas of life and not only causes personal hardship and injustice but also harms the economy.

We are campaigning to end ageism in all walks of life. We believe older people should have equal rights to participate and enjoy all the benefits of a modern society.

Am I being discriminated against?

It’s not always easy to spot age discrimination as there are several kinds some of which are subtle and unintentional:

Direct discrimination This means treating someone less favourably because of their age or because of the age they appear to be.

For example:

 A company refuses to recruit a person simply because they’re over 50  An organisation has a practice of only promoting people under the age of 50 to senior positions

Indirect discrimination

This means having a policy or practice which puts people of a certain age group at a disadvantage compared with other people.

For example:

 A company restricts recruitment to recent graduates fewer older people would be able to meet this requirement  A firm introduces a fitness test which all employees are required to pass. This could be indirect discrimination if fewer older employees are likely to be able to pass the test. However, it may be possible for the firm to justify this policy. They would have to show that the testing policy was necessary to achieve health and safety aims and that there was no less discriminatory way of achieving these aims.

Both direct and indirect discrimination are unlawful unless the employer can justify the discrimination or an exemption applies.

Harassment

Harassment or bullying based on someone’s age is unlawful. It is unlawful to harass someone on the grounds of the age of someone they associate with.

The legal meaning of harassment is: unwanted conduct on the grounds of age which has the purpose or effect of violating a persons dignity or creating an intimidating humiliating or offensive environment for that person.

For example:

 An older workers colleagues repeatedly make jokes about them at work based on their age which the person finds offensive.  Someone has a partner who is significantly younger than them and this is the basis of repeated comments and jokes from colleagues. This could be unlawful if the person finds it humiliating or offensive.

If you make a complaint of harassment to the employment tribunal they will consider whether it was reasonable for you to be offended in the circumstances. So if someone is seen to have taken offence unreasonably the tribunal can decide that the behaviour was not unlawful.

Victimisation

This has a very specific meaning under discrimination law. Victimisation means being treated unfairly as a result of making a complaint of age discrimination or giving evidence when somebody else complains of age discrimination.

For example:

 An employee is dismissed after complaining that they are not receiving the same training as younger colleagues because of their age  A worker is passed over for a promotion that they otherwise would have got because they made a witness statement supporting a colleagues complaint of age discrimination

Unlike direct and indirect discrimination harassment and victimisation can never be justified by an employer. Instructions to discriminate

If an employer instructs an employee to do something which would amount to age discrimination it is unlawful for the employer to treat that employee unfairly because they refuse to carry out the instruction or because they complain about the instruction.

For example, an employee involved in a recruitment decision is disciplined for not carrying out the employers instruction to only invite people under age 40 for a job interview.