Government Age Consultation May Leave It Too Late For Businesses To Comply

5.29.31pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 15th Jul 2005

Commenting on the publication of the Department of Trade and Industry's public consultation on age discrimination legislation, Liberal Democrat Employment Spokesperson in the European Parliament Liz Lynne MEP said:

"It is welcome that the Government are finally taking it seriously. I hope that everyone will contribute to the consultation document before the October 17th deadline. Age discrimination has lead to many people being laid off before they are ready to retire and unable to find work. This legislation will from next October mean employers will have to have far better reasons for not employing people than simply their age.

"The deadline for submissions to the consultation is leaving it a bit late for companies to be able to adapt to the new legislation. The Government will have less than a year to produce their final proposals, get it through Parliament and inform businesses of the changes in employment law.

"The Government have always seemed reluctant to introduce legislation on age discrimination. They have delayed introducing this directive for as long as possible and now appear to be running out of time before next October's deadline."

Liz Lynne was the Liberal Democrat Shadow Rapporteur on the European Employment Directive 2000 and with Age Concern and Eurolink Age ensured age was retained within the Directive.

Age anti-discrimination legislation is being introduced as a direct result of the European Employment Directive 2000. Under this directive, discrimination in the employment field on the grounds of a person's disability, age, religion or sexual orientation must be outlawed in all EU countries. The deadline for introducing this directive into member state law was December 2003.

However, The UK government requested a delay of 12 months to introduce legislation to outlaw disability discrimination, and 3 years to outlaw age discrimination.