AGE DISCRIMINATION ACT 2006

Age Discrimination Act 2006



Age Discrimination Act 2006

Age discrimination

An act in which a particular group of people are discriminated due to their age is age discrimination also known as “Ageism”. The prejudicial thoughts towards older people like all the people who lie in the age ranging from 60-70 years are incompetent. Age discrimination limits or denies opportunities to people mainly on the basis of age. The two particular areas: health care and employment mostly suffer from ageism. Some of the state laws also encourage age discrimination like a person cannot become a President of the state if he/she is not of a specified age (Rakusen, 1982, pp. 231-236).

Nature of the Case

Unfair dismissal in the employment law of the UK is a termination of the employment of a worker for a reason that is not permitted under statute. This area of law is statutory and is superimposed on the common law of employment. An employee is 'dismissed' if the employment is terminated without notice or where a fixed term contract expires without notice. There are 'constructive' dismissals, where the employee terminates because of the employer's conduct. As to 'unfair', the law deems a dismissal as a result of trade union membership or activity or non-membership of a trade union as unfair. Pregnancy is deemed to be an unfair reason. Making a person redundant can be unfair if the employee was wrongly selected (Laurence, 1994, pp. 85-96). The general rule as to fairness depends upon two factors:

Whether the reason for dismissal related to the employee's capability, qualification or conduct or was that the employee was redundant or that his continued employment would itself be a breach of the law or whether there was some other substantial reason of a kind such as to justify dismissal; and

Whether having regard to the reason shown, the employer acted reasonably or unreasonably in the circumstances in treating that reason as sufficient reason for dismissal. The employer must show the reason for the dismissal. There is no Burden Of Proof either way in relation to the proof of the reasonableness of the dismissal. The test applied is the test of the reasonable employer.

Facts

Age discrimination, or ageism, refers to bias against individuals or groups based on their age. Such discrimination may be seen in housing, employment, and other areas. One form of ageism is the devaluation of society's elderly people in favour of youth. Legal cases based on age bias frequently concern acts of discrimination against elderly workers, often regarding forced retirement. Although discriminatory hiring and promotion often occur, it is significantly more difficult to meet the legal standard of proof for these acts of discrimination (Mendelsohn, 1981, pp. 36-42).

Many accept the argument that race and sex do not affect productivity, but it is not as obvious that age does not affect work. Also, older workers are more expensive than younger workers because of health care costs as well as the benefits and higher wages accrued by seniority. While in some industries this may be offset ...