Age Discrimination Cases Set to Increase

January 2008

Age Discrimination to Become 'Age-Old' Workplace Grievance, Warns Croner

London, January 3 2008 - Just over a year since the age discrimination law was implemented (1 October 2006), research commissioned by HR experts Croner, part of Wolters Kluwer UK, has shown that age is increasingly becoming the number one discrimination-related grievance amongst UK employees.

In a YouGov survey of 1,992 British adults that work or have worked with others, 11% felt that they had been discriminated against due to their age, 3% more than those who felt they had been discriminated against as a result of their sex.

Similarly, age and sex were pinpointed as the most prominent forms of harassment amongst those who experienced such aggravation at work.

This comes on the back of a recent rise in employment tribunals, which rose by 15% in between the period 2006/2007¹.

The survey results show that the most common form of discrimination experienced by employees is age discrimination, which suggests that age claims could overtake other forms of discrimination - sex, race, sexual orientation, disability and religion or belief - Croner is advising employers to ensure they, and their employees, are judging all staff purely on their ability, not their youthful looks or perceived sprightliness.

Gillian Dowling, technical consultant at Croner, says: "Despite the massive efforts by organisations such as Croner to ensure all employers were aware of how to comply with age discrimination legislation, this form of prejudice has quickly become one of the more prominent forms of workplace discrimination defined by employment law.

"With 28,153 sex discrimination claims lodged between 2006/2007², sex remained the leading discrimination-related grievance of employment tribunal claims during this period. But with Croner's survey results showing that age discrimination has been experienced by more employees than sex discrimination, there is a very real risk to employers of increasing tribunal claims on the back of age prejudice.

"We're therefore advising employers to ensure that 'too young' or 'too old' is no longer a factor in ANY employment decision making, such as hiring and firing, and they should also be aware of any unfair treatment of their employees."

Other findings of the Croner YouGov discrimination survey were:

73% of respondents have never been the victim of discrimination on the grounds of age, sex, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation or disability
84% of respondents have never been the victim of harassment on the grounds of age, sex, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation or disability
4% of male respondents experienced sex discrimination at work, compared to 11% of females
Age discrimination is experienced by almost equal numbers of men and women (11% compared to 10%)
Only 3% of respondents felt they have been discriminated against because of their race or disability
Only 2% of employees felt they were discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or religion or belief

¹ Statistics taken from Employment Tribunal and EAT Statistics (GB): www.employmenttribunals.gov.uk/publications/documents/annual_reports...

² Statistics taken from Employment Tribunal and EAT Statistics (GB): www.employmenttribunals.gov.uk/publications/documents/annual_reports...

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