Plans to outlaw age discrimination announced
The government has announced plans today to reduce age discrimination within the UK workforce.
Equalities minister Harriet Harman presented the proposals to MPs on Thursday as part of the equalities bill.
The plans, to be introduced across England, Wales and Scotland, will also aim to tackle gender pay differences.
Campaigners have long claimed age discrimination is widespread in today’s society. They point in particular at the NHS where older patients may be told to expect poor health at their age or denied treatment outright.
Ms Harman defended the bill, which some have claimed discriminates against white men, on GMTV this morning.
“Most women are going out to work and they are just as committed to their jobs – the money that they earn is important to the household budget so they should be paid fairly,” she said.
“Yet listen to this figure – if you are a woman working part-time you get 40 per cent less per hour on average than a man working full-time.
“Now either this is because women are not up to the job or else there is discrimination against them. You can’t challenge discrimination when it’s kept swept under the carpet. I think there’s a lot of resentment at the unfairness against women. They are not being given the facts.”
In the Commons, later this morning, Ms Harman declared that “fairness” was important for British society and economy.
She also called for employers to be forced into publishing data on key equality issues.
Ms Harman said that the private sector was particularly guilty of inequality when it came to pay.
Eighty per cent of British workers are employed in the private sector, which Ms Harman claims has a pay gap twice as big as the public sector.
She also claimed that the government would be aiming to overturn current discrimination against the elderly.
“Many people still think it’s perfectly acceptable to discriminate against the elderly, it is not,” she said, adding: “People are not over the hill at 60”.
“We will promote equality for older people”.
The equalities minister also announced that it should be possible to see which businesses were employing disabled people and which were “shutting them out”.
In response, Age Concern and Help the Aged claimed the government’s plans were a “massive step forward”.
Michael Lake, director general of Help the Aged, said: “For a long time the government would not accept that age discrimination was a problem. Now it has, and so the timetable for action is absolutely crucial.
“Older people have been waiting for far too long to be treated as equals – and they shouldn’t have to wait for these rights any longer. Legislation must be enacted without delay so older people can be on a truly equal footing as soon as possible.”
Age Concern’s director general, Gordon Lishman, added: “The government’s decision to use the equality bill to outlaw age discrimination is fantastic news. It sends a clear signal that ageism should be taken as seriously as any other form of discrimination. This legislation will transform the lives of millions of older people by giving them the same opportunities to participate in society as everyone else.”
But proposals on workplace equality have been widely derided. Even Progressive Vision, a classic liberal thinktank, called the plans “ludicrous” and “a recipe for disaster”.
Mark Littlewood, Progressive Vision’s communications director, said: “To allow gender or race to act as a tie-breaker in a close contest is offensive and immoral.
“If being a white man can be the determining factor in failing to get a job, where will this logically end?
“These proposals will lead to resentment, arbitrary decision-taking and risk making discrimination in Britain worse not better.”
Liberal Democrats said the plans did not tackle inequality in the private sector.
“Efforts to tackle entrenched inequality are welcome, but serious questions must be asked about why the private sector is getting off so lightly,” said Lib Dem equality spokesperson Lynne Featherstone.
“A voluntary audit system for private industry is hardly worth the paper it’s printed on. We need to know when the government actually plans to step in if progress isn’t made.”
