UNFAIR discrimination is something that no society aspiring to a properly functioning democracy can tolerate. In Britain, rightly, there has been much focus on eradicating racism and sexism in employment practices, but ageism has been the neglected prejudice.
Everyone condemns it. Everyone knows it goes on. No one does anything about it. At least, now, Westminster’s cross-party Women and Equalities Committee has produced a hard-hitting report into a practice that its chairwoman describes as “both alarming and totally unacceptable”.
The report laments the waste of talent inherent in having more than a million people over 50 unwillingly out of work across the UK. Many Herald readers will have anecdotal evidence, or first-hand experience, of perfectly qualified and experienced people turned down for jobs not once or twice but eternally, so that they’re left to rot on the dole, their talents unused, their experienced under-valued, their wisdom derided. It’s a shaming situation that makes no sense beyond hazarding a guess that many employers fear older applicants might be more prey to illness or that they just don’t fit the image of a young and thrusting company. This, in an age of longevity, applied to the over-50s? How absurd.
However, this isn’t just a failing of the recruitment sector. The report insists that the Government hasn’t been forceful enough in making it plain that discrimination is unlawful under the Equality Act 2010. This codified previous primary legislation on sex and race discrimination, and incorporated the secondary legislation of the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006. So, effectively, age discrimination has been unlawful for 12 years. And still it is rife. According to the committee, the UK Government’s employer-led approach is “unlikely to present an adequate challenge to discriminatory practices”.
The report recommends recruitment agencies taking more responsibility and collecting data; age profile of workforces to be reported; more scrutiny of the public sector’s performance in this regard; and a mandatory approach to flexible working and leave for older workers with caring responsibilities. We endorse these suggestions and would hope that Scottish MPS – of all parties – will get involved in putting pressure on Westminster to up its game. At the same time, while employment rights and equal opportunities may be matters reserved to Westminster, our devolved administration can get involved. Just because a matter is reserved doesn’t mean we have to be reserved about it. There are things we can do. Last year, there was talk of setting up a commission into age discrimination, and we trust that hasn’t been forgotten. Being forgotten has been the fate of too many of our willing-to-work over-50s. That’s a shameful situation that has to change.
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