There have been reports on TV this week that a British woman is sueing her former (British) employers under the age discrimination laws in America. She was a 56-year-old high-flying executive with and International company and worked for the US branch.
In Britain, there are no laws to stop employers discriminating against people in employment on the grounds of their age.
Personally, I can see that certain jobs require certain types of people, but cannot see why there should be discrimination on grounds of age only. I suppose some employers might argue that a younger person has more "working life" in them than an older person, but the days when people keep the same job all their working lives are gone, so that argument wouldn't stand up.
I suspect that a lot of so-called "age discrimination" is, in fact, discriminating on people's looks - they want a pretty or handsome face behind the desk, rather than a "wrinkly".
Are we losing out on the years of experience that that so-called "wrinklies" have at the expense of having a good-looking, but relatively inexperienced workforce in some areas?
Is it necessary to put our date of birth on job application forms? Would it not be enough to have a checkbox stating that we are "over 18" (or 21 in some countries) when applying for jobs in, say pubs, casinos, etc. ?
John
In Britain, there are no laws to stop employers discriminating against people in employment on the grounds of their age.
Personally, I can see that certain jobs require certain types of people, but cannot see why there should be discrimination on grounds of age only. I suppose some employers might argue that a younger person has more "working life" in them than an older person, but the days when people keep the same job all their working lives are gone, so that argument wouldn't stand up.
I suspect that a lot of so-called "age discrimination" is, in fact, discriminating on people's looks - they want a pretty or handsome face behind the desk, rather than a "wrinkly".
Are we losing out on the years of experience that that so-called "wrinklies" have at the expense of having a good-looking, but relatively inexperienced workforce in some areas?
Is it necessary to put our date of birth on job application forms? Would it not be enough to have a checkbox stating that we are "over 18" (or 21 in some countries) when applying for jobs in, say pubs, casinos, etc. ?
John
