Ageism rife across Europe, study says
Over-40s disregarded by recruiters and excluded from training and promotion
Date:
01 September 1993
Source:
Page:
109
Age discrimination in recruitment policies is apparent throughout Europe, and in many cases stems from personnel managers, according to an EC-wide study.
Eurolink Age, a pressure group concerned with ageing, found that the over-40s are often being disregarded by recruiters and excluded from training or employment promotion schemes, and they are hardly ever targeted for special measures. Specifying upper age limits in job advertisements is also common.
“In France, and, I suspect, in the UK, chairmen and managing directors are often very willing to take on more older workers, but personnel are still reluctant to do this,” said Elizabeth Drury, the author of the report.
Chairmen and MDs are more willing to take a longer view when employing an older worker, and do not believe in stereotypes that older workers are harder to train, less productive and less healthy, she said. “But such executives are the privileged elite, who are not subject to age limits and can go on beyond 65.”
Drury called for positive measures to be introduced to combat age discrimination, such as incentives to employers to recruit the older unemployed, but also legislation to ban age limits in job ads and training schemes.
“In the UK this would mean getting rid of the upper limit of 60 for employment training for the adult unemployed and the limit of 50 from getting a priority place in training,” said Drury.
But she thought that the UK and the rest of Europe “were not ready” for laws which banned all forms of age discrimination. “We have to face the fact that governments are not going to go this far – indirect age discrimination is difficult to prove and such laws would be costly to enforce,” she said.
In France specifying age limits in job advertisements is banned, but it is a law that is generally ignored.
However, France has filled 11,000 jobs with older workers by giving employers financial incentives.
· Keith Handley, the chair of Metra’s older workers campaign group, has written to Employment Minister Michael Forsyth to complain about the European Commission’s practice of restricting certain jobs to those aged 32 or under.