Recruitment, Education & BusinessNewsOlder workers at 50+ bear brunt of job turndown Older workers at 50+ bear brunt of job turndown
13/08/2008
Commenting on today’s employment figures from the Office for National Statistics which show a fall of 9,000 in the number of people aged 50 to state pension age in employment (1,000 fewer men and 8,000 fewer women),
Chris Ball, Chief Executive of TAEN – The Age and Employment Network, says:
“As we suspected, with the job market turning down and employers shedding staff, it appears to be older workers and particularly older women who are bearing the brunt of many lay-offs.
“Even though the Age Regulations mean that using an individual’s age as the basis for selection for redundancy is likely to be unlawful*, it is the way that many employers have traditionally tackled the task when they have needed to cut staff numbers.
“Employers need to remember that Employment Tribunals can award uncapped compensation in respect of any successful age discrimination claim. And even though we have not seen the explosion of claims that some employment lawyers and business organisations were forecasting before the legislation came into force, we do expect the numbers to rise as more redundancies occur.”