Dear colleagues
In case you have not heard already, the Government has finally published its draft regulations on age discrimination (July 14 2005). The regulations are accompanied by the final consultation document, 'Coming of Age'. The consulation period will run from now until mid October of this year. For a link and more information go to www.ecu.ac.uk
There are a couple of surprises in the draft regulations. Included for the first time are proposals for 'planned retirement' procedures: and rather surprisingly the regulations do NOT provide a list of legitimate aims on which age discrimination can be objectively justified but instead propose leaving this to organisations to decide for themselves.
ECU will produce a short update on the regulations once we have had some time to read them all ( the link to the DTI website where they are sited is unfortunately not currently working!) Meantime, we would urge you all to respond to the consultation process if at all possible. If you are happy to share your consultation with us that would be extremely helpful. You can email it to us at this email address [log in to unmask]
The Employers Forum on Age has published its own take on the regulations at www.efa.org.uk along with a helpful and very short publication called The Last Chance which emphasises that this is indeed the last chance for employers and others to comment on the proposed regulations and their implications. EFA is lobbying hard for guidance on the regulations to be published at the same time that the final version of the regulations goes through. In the light of the decision not to include a list of the legitimate grounds for age discrimination then the need for timely publication of guidance becomes more even more pressing.
Over the summer, ECU in collaboration with UCEA is forming a sector wide working group to look at the practical implications of the proposals with a view to formulating a joint programme of work of support and guidance in those areas where it seems the sector will most need assistance. In doing this they have been helped by the responses to the ECU age discrimination consultation document and many thanks again to all those of you participated in this. More news on the work of this group will be posted on our website and via other means as it develops.
Finally, ECU hopes to be up and running again as from Monday of next week when full access to our offices will resume . Meantime we would like to thank you all for your messages to all of us over this past week.
Best wishes
All at ECU
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