26 September 2006

BPIF warns of major changes in discrimination legislation

New Age Discrimination Legislation comes into force on 1st October and from that date the following will apply: · Individuals above the age of 65 will be able to claim Unfair Dismissal · It will be very difficult to justify a retirement age of less than 65 · Employers will need to follow a particular process in order to retire an employee. This process starts with a letter to the employee at least 6 months before the intended retirement date. The employee may ask the employer to consider allowing him to stay on and the employer must hold a consultation meeting with him. · Employees will be able to bring claims of discrimination in all areas of employment including recruitment, benefits, pension provision, promotion, training and dismissal · This is not just a matter of older employees – discrimination of any age group will be caught by the Regulations Anne Copley, BPIF Head of Legal, says “This is probably the biggest thing in Employment Law in the last 10 years. It will need a complete overhaul of all personnel policies, including Health Insurance and Retirement Ages. A good place to start is for members to make use of the Guidance and precedent documents on the BPIF website, but they will also need to take bespoke professional advice as soon as possible”