Age Discrimination in the United Kingdom

Abstract

There is currently no legislation in the UK dealing with age discrimination in any area. This article focuses on the question of ageism in employment and outlines the UK Government's present voluntary and educative policy towards this problem. It points out deficiencies in this approach, not least lack of enforcement or a remedy for victims. The ‘demographic revolution’ resulting from an already ageing UK population, makes the need for effective protection against ageism in employment, more urgent than ever before. The question whether legislation for age discrimination would work in the UK is also addressed. In the absence of specific statutory protection for age, it may be possible to obtain redress by claiming indirect gender, race or disability discrimination under existing British law on these areas. This is however inadequate to tackle the very real problem of ageism in the workplace. A number of studies have recommended appropriate equal opportunities policies and an holistic human resources strategy to deal with this issue. These have some merit but on their own will not achieve a uniform and acceptable outcome.