New Anti-Ageism Laws Could Fail, Warns Recruitment Chief

The head of a pioneering anti-ageist recruitment agency this week slammed the ëshameful employment practicesí still operating in some commercial sectors

Spencer Jacobs, MD at the London and Watford-based Forties People agency warned Tony Blair that new anti-ageist legislation due to come into force this October could fail unless tough action is taken to police it.

Said Jacobs: ìThe new laws are just months away and yet some companies ñ and even some recruitment agencies ñ appear blind to the imminent changes.

The recent Panorama programme; ëMust Have Own Teethí underlined what we know from our own experience to be a sad fact of life ñ age discrimination in the workplace has not gone away.

And our real concern is that the Age Legislation Act 2006 may not have the consistent and persistent follow-up support it will need from government to reassure older jobseekers that age discrimination has indeed been consigned to the dustbin of history.î

He added: ìItís a disgrace that some agencies and some employers are still colluding to effectively deny suitable mature staff the right to interview and fair appraisal of their potential.

The Panorama team even uncovered a scenario in which an agency was further prepared to be racist and exclude coloured people from the list of candidates for a job.

Thatís quite unbelievable in 21st century Britain ñ and what is equally worrying is the fact that key employers, including the BBC itself, employ pathetically low percentages of people over the age of 55. Even the Prime Ministerís own Strategy Unit fails to include one person over the age of fifty.î

ìBusiness has to put an end to these practices right now. What is needed is a culture sea-change -and any recruitment agency prepared to accept a discriminatory brief from a client should be denied the right to operate in this business.î