Age Discrimination – Recruitment and Selection

Age discrimination legislation was introduced first in 2006 with the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, which was then incorporated with all other UK equality legislation into the Equality Act 2010 (‘EA’). Since the legislation was introduced it has created a number of situations relating to the recruitment of employees that could constitute age discrimination.

Where a claim is to be brought for age discrimination, this should be done within three months less one day from the treatment that constitutes age discrimination. The ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures (www.acas.org.uk) must be followed where it applies. If it is not then there are penalties, which are applied to any compensation that is awarded.

Advertising for candidates is something that needs to be carefully considered – where an advert is not properly worded it could end up falling foul of the EA and give a candidate who has been rejected for the position the opportunity to launch a claim for discrimination. Any targeting of the advert must be able to be objectively justified, for example choosing to place the advert in a publication that is only read by people of a certain age – that could be indirect discrimination. The wording should focus only on the skills required to fulfill the position, avoiding words that may indicate the role requires someone of a certain age, such as ‘young and dynamic.’

Candidate applications should be kept anonymous when it comes to age and requesting a date of birth or a photo on an application form that also contains a candidate’s name could be contrary to the EA – for this reason, application forms without an age requirement are often preferable to requesting CVs. If there is a requirement for a certain number of years’ experience, this can be a difficult area and must be justifiable as an objective requirement for the job – for example, it will not be acceptable to look to hire someone at the start of their career because they are cheaper.  Employers who only recruit from university career fairs may find this is indirect discrimination in the light of age discrimination legislation. An employer who chooses this course of action should be able to show that the focus of recruiting in this way is on finding someone with the right qualification not the age – if not, then any candidates who are rejected and who have all the right qualifications but are slightly older may have a discrimination claim.

The interview process is also another area in which there could be age discrimination issues, in particular:

– Questions that could be used to determine a candidate’s age, such as ‘how long is it since you left university.’

– Questions that are asked of a particular section of applicants of a certain age that are not asked of candidates of another age, such as ‘do you find you are still motivated?’

– Questions about the number of years of experience a candidate has.

– Introducing a medical examination into the process may also be contrary to the EA unless it can be objectively justified.

Training – both educational and vocational – must not limit entry to courses, or the terms on which the courses are offered, by age or there may be a claim for discrimination.