Legal Duty to Protect Staff from Discrimination, Bullying and Harassment

Further to this article, Barrister Daniel Barnett has informed us that the Department of Work and Pensions has published details of a survey on age discrimination in the workplace. According to the survey, despite legislation still being three years away, employers are beginning to take action to introduce appropriate policies into the workplace. The results of the survey include:

- 67% of employers are aware that age discrimination legislation will be introduced into the workplace by the end of 2006;

- 57% of employers confirmed they already avoid using age limits and age-related words in job advertisements;

- 55% do not use age as a basis for redundancy (the summary of the survey is unclear if they includes LIFO, which is indirectly discriminatory on grounds of age); and,

- 62% of employers base training purely on skills needs.

Ciaron Dunne, Editor