Earlier this month, the first case of age discrimination in Northern Ireland was won by a Terrence McCoy - a 58 year old man applying for one of two sales posts in the timber trade. After two interviews, he was informed he had been unsuccessful, but the employment tribunal found in his favour, and pointed out that the job advert used the phrase "youthful enthusiasm", adding that the employer had consistently linked age to "motivation", "enthusiasm" and "drive."
The fact that it's taken so long for Northern Ireland to get its first age discrimination case is not a sign that ageism is a thing of the past. Elsewhere in the UK, in the first year of the act becoming law, the Employment Tribunal Service has received more than 2,000 claims regarding cases of UK age discrimination. Contrary to popular belief, it isn't just the older workers who are victims of prejudice, with many young workers complaining that they are paid less than their older colleagues for exactly the same job.
The 2006 changes to the law included the outlawing of sacking on age grounds for under 65s, the right for workers to request continued employment after the age of 65, equal training opportunities for all regardless of age and an end to ageist recruiting practices. Of course, all the law guarantees is that no employer can be overt in their age discrimination - if they're a little bit more subtle, there's no way of proving any kind of prejudice, as any excuses can be made up. In the UK and elsewhere in the world, many see age discrimination legislation as the first step towards changing ingrained attitudes.
So here's a look at some of the age discrimination laws, adopted before the UK, elsewhere in the world, and how they've been accepted:
USA
The USA has actually been well ahead of the game in terms of age discrimination legislation, with a federal law implementation in 1967, though many states had built their own laws from the early 20th century. That said, it only really offers support for older workers, making it illegal to fire or fail to hire someone because they are over 40 years old.
Despite this change to legislation, employment in the over 50s has dropped since the 1960s, making it appear quite ineffective on paper. That said, recently the age discrimination message seems to be gathering momentum, and there are now more claims against employers for age related complaints than both sex and race prejudice.
Australia
Australia, like the USA, has had a great deal of age discrimination legislation passed - both on a local level (as early as 1977 in the case of New South Wales) and then on a national level in both 1996 and 2004. However a study published five years on from the first batch of national legislation claimed that while overt discrimination had been dampened, there was no "significant shift in the attitude of employers and society to older workers." The report concluded that removing all aspects of ageist attitudes was very much a "long term process."
Denmark
Denmark's age discrimination law was brought in during 2004, and thanks to it being part of the EU is almost identical to the UK act, meaning that the law can be sidestepped if an employer can reasonably offer an objective reason why age would play a part in someone's suitability to perform a role - for example, a firefighter may require a certain degree of sprightliness that an older worker could not realistically offer. The key area where the UK age discrimination law differs is that in Denmark, workers don't automatically have the right to request to stay in their job past 65.
In Denmark, the introduction of age discrimination legislation has been remarkably low key, with only two tribunal cases emerging in the first two years of the law being enforced. This may be partly due to Denmark's liberal attitude and lack of history of issues, combined with the word not getting out about the law, on accounts of so few people going to court with it!
Republic of Ireland
Eire actually undertook age discrimination legislation in 1998 - before the EU's Employment Equality Regulations. Like elsewhere, the impression from Ireland is that the laws have had little impact in helping older people find work, and there is an ingrained prejudice that legislation alone will not fix.
Across the board - with the exception of Denmark, where it wasn't viewed as a big problem in the first place - it seems that legislation against discrimination alone is not enough, and there are more ingrained prejudices to be dealt with before we see some real changes to the ease with which older people can find employment, and avoid being forced out with spurious and fake excuses.
