AGEISM AND THE FASHION WORLD
For all employers, the challenge is now to adapt to a new business environment, where discrimination, harassment or victimisation of employees, applicants and contract workers on the grounds of age is unlawful. The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 (the “Regulations”), which came into force in October 2006, contain a number of features which are unique in discrimination legislation and which employers will not have experienced previously.
The Regulations protect workers of all ages, not just older workers. Employers can no longer take decisions such as who to recruit, promote, train or dismiss based on the age of the employee. Common business practices, like employing people in the age range of the customer demographic or requiring employees to wear the clothes sold by a store, may no longer be acceptable.
There are certain circumstances when employers can treat people differently because of their age, but such circumstances are very limited.
Employers will have to show that the discrimination was a proportionate method of achieving a legitimate business purpose. Previous discrimination legislation has shown that this is a high hurdle to jump. Simply stating that it makes the business more profitable or is market practice will not excuse discrimination.
The best advice is for employers to start to address what could be discriminatory practices (whether intentional or not) now, rather than waiting for problems to emerge. This is no small task. At a minimum, employers should seek to foster a culture change and ensure that policies for recruitment, selection, promotion, training, pay and other conditions of employment are reviewed and altered to remove any discriminatory practices.
For further information, contact:
Helen Croft
+44 (0)20 7440 7065
helen.croft@mishcon.com