David Stanton
Question:215 Mr. Stanton asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the action, if any, he is considering to discourage ageist practices in employment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15807/99]
Written Answers. - Employment Equality.
The Employment Equality Act, 1998, prohibits discrimination in relation to employment on nine grounds, including age. The Act is comprehensive and deals with all areas relevant to employment including access to employment, conditions of employment, remuneration, promotion and vocational training. The age provisions of the Act apply to persons between the ages of 18 years and 65 years, except in the case of vocational training, where the Act applies to persons over the minimum school leaving age, 15 years at present.
The Act makes it unlawful to apply arbitrary age limits in employment, but permits employers to set maximum recruitment ages which take account of the cost or period of time involved in training for the job and the need to ensure a reasonable period of effective service prior to retirement. Any maximum recruitment age set by an employer can, in the context of an equality case under the Act, be examined by the Director of Equality Investigations, a new organisation which will be established to provide redress of first instance under the Act, to determine if the age limit set conflicts with the criteria mentioned above.
The Act also requires the phasing out of age related pay, in all employments where such a practice exists, within three years of the date on which section 29 of the Act, which deals with equal remuneration on non-gender grounds, comes into operation. However, different rates of pay, or different terms and conditions of employment, are permitted, if the difference is based on relative seniority or length of service in a particular post or employment. Existing retirement ages will remain legal as will different treatment based on sound actuarial evidence.
The target date for implementation of the Act is 1 September 1999.