It's time we valued the over-50s and cast ageism on the scrapheap

Published on Wednesday 16 August 2006 02:11

OLDER people - those aged 50 and over - are often subject to ageism, a general perception that they are different and of lesser value than younger people. They may habitually experience discrimination, in that they are often treated less favourably than others, or their distinctive needs are regularly overlooked. And they may occasionally experience disadvantage as a result, compared with other, younger people.

They are subject to both indirect and direct discrimination. Indirect discrimination is a product of ageist assumptions and stereotypes that result in a failure to include older people and specifically address their needs, for example, the targeting of adult education resources on vocational courses to the exclusion of those outside the existing labour force.

Direct discrimination occurs most obviously in the use of chronological age as a criterion for accessing goods, such as insurance; services, including health or social care; and opportunities, for example to participate in education, public life or the labour market. Direct discrimination also occurs when age barriers are a matter of custom and practice, rather than written policy.

Analysis of the evidence may reveal, for example, that a company does not employ anyone over 50 although they have no explicit policy to that effect. Older workers may be being denied jobs or training because they are simply perceived as "past it".

A survey by Help the Aged in Scotland in 2002 found that a lot of older workers made redundant, many of them highly qualified and with countless years of experience, are then unable to get another job and find themselves in severe financial hardship, cast on the scrapheap without the means to save properly for their own old age.

This week's TUC report into the lack of employment opportunities for more than a million people aged 50 and over is yet another example of how widespread age discrimination in the workplace really is in the UK and how urgently it needs to be tackled. Many employers still fail to consider the over-50s as truly valuable, although research shows they tend to be loyal and productive workers.

Help the Aged in Scotland is optimistic that new legislation, due in October, will start to correct some prehistoric attitudes which far too many companies in UK plc exhibit in their hiring and firing practices. It may require fine-tuning over time, until a body of case law is built up, and regular staff audits should not be ruled out as a means of attaining adherence.

The apparent skills shortages in many sectors of industry should also drive an increasing number of firms to change practices and recognise older workers can be a real asset. If companies and organisations fail to ditch discrimination on the grounds of age, they will suffer in the long term, which in turn damages the economy.

Ageism in any walk of life should be consigned to the history books. Discrimination on the grounds of age is as clear a breach of human rights as racism, sexism or homophobia and has no place in a 21st-century country such as ours.

• Lindsay Scott is the senior press officer for Help The Aged in Scotland.