Draft Age Discrimination Regulations Published

The Department of Trade and Industry has confirmed its intention to remove the upper age limits for the right to claim for unfair dismissal and redundancy payments. It is one of a raft of measures contained in draft regulations that will prohibit age discrimination in employment and which have now been published for consultation.

The 'Coming of Age' consultation will run for three months until 17 October 2005. It seeks views on the new regulations which, as well as removing the upper age limits, will:

· prohibit unjustified age discrimination in employment and vocational training

· require employers who set their retirement age below the default age of 65 to justify or change it

· introduce a new duty on employers to consider an employee's request to continue working beyond retirement

· require employers to inform employees in writing, and at least 6 months in advance, of their intended retirement date

· include provisions relating to service related benefits and occupational pensions.

The new age discrimination regulations will be brought into force on 1 October 2006.

The consultation website, which includes links to the draft regulations, is at http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/equality/age.htm.

15th July 2005