The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations were introduced in England and Wales in 2006, seeking to prohibit age discrimination in employment and vocational training. This thesis assesses whether the legislation adopted is an effective mechanism by which to address age discrimination in the workplace and achieve the dual but contradictory objectives of the European Union Framework Directive on Equal Treatment of achieving equal treatment between age cohorts whilst encouraging the active participation of older citizens in the workplace. The thesis sheds light on this hitherto unregulated suspect ground of discrimination by means of a quantitative and qualitative analysis of all employment tribunal judgments which relate to an age discrimination claim over a three and a half year period. This study shows that very few claimants were successful if their claim of age discrimination was considered by a tribunal and there was considerable inconsistency of implementation and interpretation of the legislation by individual tribunals. Employers have quickly developed defences against claims of age discrimination in order to maintain their freedom to contract and the imbalance between the two parties was particularly noticeable with claimant credibility often under scrutiny – a process claimants appeared unprepared for. Regional discrepancies were found in terms of success rates and compensation awards. A gender award gap was found in both overall compensation and injury to feelings awards, with women given smaller awards than men, whilst younger workers were given smaller awards than older workers. Legal representation made a substantial difference to success rates and compensation awards, but the majority of awards were low and many would not have covered legal costs. The low compensation awards do not provide an effective deterrent, as required by the Article 17 of the Directive. The legislation is particularly ineffective for those who claimed they had suffered multiple discrimination. Although an important first step in regulating ageist behaviour, the Regulations and the subsequent Equality Act 2010 will be unlikely to achieve the aims of the Directive as they provide little incentive for claimants to undertake the stressful process of making a claim under the legislation, which relies upon individual fault-finding.

This thesis aims to provide a comprehensive theory of age discrimination that can guide the direct and indirect age discrimination provisions of the Equality Act 2010. The Act holds that unequal treatment on the grounds of age and measures that are on their face age-neutral but have the effect of disadvantaging particular age groups are lawful only if the treatment can be shown either to be a 'proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim' or if the treatment fits into a specifically prescribed exception. In this way, the proportionality test distinguishes justified and unjustified age-differential treatment with only the former legally permissible. I outline and defend a pluralist theory of age discrimination that assists in making the distinction between justified and unjustified age-differential treatment. The theory identifies the principles that explain when and why age-differential treatment wrongs people and the principles that can justify this treatment. It is a pluralist theory because it recognises that age-differential treatment can wrong people for a number of different, overlapping reasons, and these different reasons should inform how we apply age discrimination law. The pluralist theory of age discrimination theory can improve legal reasoning in age discrimination cases by articulating the relevant principles and competing interests that are at stake in age discrimination claims. In constructing the theory, I adopt the reflective equilibrium method. This requires that I 'test' my starting moral intuitions against other beliefs, seeking coherence among these beliefs, and revising the beliefs as a result of particular challenges to them. In applying this method, I identify the following five principles to form a pluralist theory of age discrimination: equality of opportunity, social equality, respect, autonomy and efficiency.

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Job-seeking research has been implicitly an examination of the job-seeking activities of youth. Even at the broader level of the labour market there continues an underlying association of youth with employment while the experiences of mature workers have been largely minimised, especially in New Zealand. This study examines the job-seeking activities and experiences of mature job-seekers in the New Zealand labour market from a political economy perspective.Issues surrounding mature workers have lacked a theoretical and disciplinary "base" with the issues of retirement and health consistently overwhelming any discussion about mature people and employment. The political economy theory of aging does provide a useful explanatory framework given the struggle for recognition and resources of mature workers. The persistent exclusion of mature workers from any discussion about the labour market in New Zealand is a common theme throughout the present study.As mature workers become increasingly "problematised" by economists as a threat to future economic productivity; issues surrounding mature employment need to be better understood because there will be greater proportions of mature workers and mature job-seekers. Through a sample of 947 mature jobs-seekers collected by MESA offices throughout New Zealand, issues surrounding mature job-seekers in particular were examined.The results highlight both the different and similar experiences of men and women in the New Zealand labour market. Women respondents were more likely to present themselves as younger than men, and to be returning to the labour market after family responsibilities with lesser confidence in their job-seeking skills and occupational abilities. Men by contrast presented themselves at MESA as older and more likely to have been made redundant; they also appeared to have more confidence in their job-seeking and occupational skills. Gender, however, did little to explain the primarily formal job-seeking methods used and the effort expended job-seeking. There is little to suggest that job-seeking efforts diminish significantly with age. Only with the final cohort of age 61 years and over, was mean job-search effort significantly less than for other age-cohorts. By contrast the variable time out of work explained much of the variance with job-search peaking at six months out of work. Subsequent analysis strongly supports the suggestion that any policy intervention will have the greatest impact within the first four to six months of unemployment.There is also some evidence to suggest that the reason for becoming a mature job-seeker and the attributions these mature job-seekers make for their unemployment is associated with their job-search efforts. In the present study those mature job-seekers made compulsorily redundant, regardless of age or gender, clearly tried harder than other job-seekers. By contrast those job-seekers who indicated they had been dismissed gave less effort to their job-search.The primary barrier identified by mature job-seekers is silence, silence from employers or employment agencies about why they have not been considered or rejected for work. As a consequence many mature job-seekers interpreted this silence as age discrimination. Understandably mature job-seekers are reluctant to see their lack of skills or experience as contributing to their circumstance and feel disappointed that their skills are not appreciated: a point well highlighted by the qualitative analysis "Trajectory of emotion" that captures the voice of participants in the present study. Finally, paid employment does matter to mature people and future research and policy would do well to examine the full picture of the labour market and give attention to where real needs exist. Mature job-seekers in the present study did not necessarily seek "special" treatment but rather the same opportunities as their chronologically younger colleagues to make a contribution to New Zealand society through paid work.

Clinicians are often required to make judgments regarding clients on the basis of relatively limited information. These judgments can have a substantial effect on the client's own self-perception and on the perceptions of others about the client. This study was designed to investigate the effect of demographic information on clinical judgments.A preliminary study was utilized to determine which demographic variables to vary in the demographic combination presented in the case study. A cluster analysis found that undergraduates reported differences in their perceptions of demographic combinations based on the age and socioeconomic status which was included. As only one part of the demographic combination was to be varied, age was selected.In the main study, graduate student clinicians were presented a case study. The gender, race and socioeconomic status of the client presented in the case study remained constant while the age of the client was varied. Half of the students received a case study where the demographic information represented a 74 year old and half received a case study where the demographic information represented a 35 year old. It was hypothesized that graduate student clinicians' ratings would vary based on the age of the client presented.In addition, it was hypothesized that placing demographic information at the beginning of the case study would result in different ratings than when demographic information was placed at the end of the case study. Half of those presented with the 74 year old client demographic information received that information early in the case study and half received that information near the end of the case study. The same manipulation was made for those presented with the demographic information representative of the 35 year old client.It was also hypothesized that those without demographic information would rate clients differently than those with demographic information. None of the hypotheses were supported; however, an effect for the time of rating was found. Later ratings were found to be more lenient than earlier ratings. Clinical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Thesis (MEd (Human Resource Studies)) -- University of South Australia, 1994

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Carolyn J. Rosenthal. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 206-230).

LL.M. / Age discrimination first arose in the post-industrial revolution period. Prior to that most people earned a living through a connection to the land. Agriculture was a family affair with all members contributing to the task, from the youngest to the oldest, according to their abilities. As the ability for labour waned, older people tended to be cared for by their families. Those who did not work on the land were mostly self-employed artisans and crafts people, such as cobblers, carpenters and blacksmiths, and they worked to whatever schedule they wished. Also, tools used at that time were different to those used today and expertise was achieved through age and experience, so that a tradesman such as a goldsmith was a more skilled artisan if he had 30 years experience than an associate with considerably less experience. Age discrimination in employment just did not occur because there was little employment by large impersonal corporations.

Section 187(2)(b) of the Labour Relations Act sets out certain justifications for what may seem to be unfair discrimination in the workplace. The purpose of this note is to discuss the provisions of Age Discrimination, with specific focus on the rights of older employees, who have reached, what some might term, the ‘normal or agreed retirement age’. In the discuss which follows reference will be made to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa1 in order to investigate the provisions of our new democratic era, and what is said therein about discrimination, and age discrimination in particular. In our new Constitutional dispensation there have also been circumstances where certain kinds of discrimination have become accepted on society, for example Affirmative Action, and an enquiry into the difference between discrimination and differentiation will therefore also be necessary. The provisions of the Employment Equity Act,2 which deal specifically with eliminating unfair discrimination in the workplace, and the Labour Relations Act,3 which deals primarily with the rights of employees, employers and trade unions, and seeks to harmonize employer-employee relations will be discussed wherein specific reference will be made to section 187(2)(b) of the LRA. A further discussion will outline the circumstances of what is meant by dismissal in the context of age based dismissals, and whether such a dismissal is infact a dismissal and whether, within the requirements of the LRA such a dismissal, or termination of employment contract, is infact fair. Furthermore, a comparative perspective of other jurisdictions will give a more complete understanding of the issue of age-based dismissals within the current context. However, to refer to legislation and foreign decisions alone, while being of important reference, is not enough and a enquiry into our own case law will be of significant importance to determine a path of direction one can expect when faced with a question of dismissals based on mandatory retirement ages, and in particular, a dismissal which has been so executed with recourse to section 187(2)(b) of the LRA. In the various cases the reasoning and rationale behind the decision making will shed light on a seemingly unresolved area of labour law, and in reading further not only in the judgments but also in various articles, one will see that there are many arguments for and against the use of a mandatory retirement age, the most important of which will be highlighted.

No description available.