1. Careers
your questions answered
❱❱ I am approaching retirement age, but I want
to keep on working. What are my rights?
In the UK it has been illegal for an example is refusing to recruit indi- people on the
organisation to discriminate against viduals over 60 for a role that involves move
an individual in employment, educa- a long and expensive training period.
tion or training due to their age since The aim would be for an employee to ❱❱ Mark Bly
© H-GAll
2006. These rights have now been fur- be in the role for a reasonable period As a part of a management shake-
ther clarified by the new Equality Act before they retire. up responding to questions about
2010 which came into force on At the current time organisations its health and safety culture, BP
1 October. can also refuse to hire someone who has appointed Mark Bly to lead the
The new act is over the national default retirement company’s newly-formed opera-
brought together the age of 65, or the employers normal tional safety unit.
different pieces of retirement age, without having to jus- Mark, who led the team that
equality legisla- tify it. Moreover, organisations can still produced BP’s report on the
tion that had force employees to retire once they causes of the Deepwater Horizon
been created have reached the age of 65, provid- rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico,
over previous ing they follow the correct procedure. has been promoted to chief execu-
decades Employers must give employees a tive of safety and operational risk
including the minimum of six months’ notice of the and will report directly to BP’s new
Employment intended date of retirement and all chief executive Bob Dudley.
Equality (Age) employees have the right to request to
Regulations 2006 continue working after that date. If an ❱❱ Industry star
and introduced new organisation fails to give six months’ chaMBer
protection against dis- notice an employee can appeal to the UK prime minister David Cameron
crimination in goods and employment tribunal and be awarded has approached business chiefs
services such as healthcare. up to eight weeks pay in compensa- from a range of sectors to join
The legislation provides anti- tion. If an employer gives less than together as a “star chamber” of
discrimination rights for employees, two weeks’ notice, the retirement is industry and act as an advisory
the self-employed, contract workers considered to be unfair dismissal. panel to the government.
and job applicants as well as adults in However, this is all due to change The heads of BAE Systems,
training or education. Essentially, no after a government announcement in Sainsbury’s, GlaxoSmithKline and
organisation can treat an individual July revealed that the default retire- the Confederation of British Indus-
less favourably because of their age. ment age of 65 is to be abolished try are among the 20 leaders that
For example, they cannot refuse to from 1 October 2011. Once the formal have been approached. The body
employee someone or have a policy retirement age has been scrapped will advise the government on busi-
that puts people of a certain age at employers will no longer be able to ness policies and is planned to be
a disadvantage, such as restricting force employees to retire at 65 and the less formal than Gordon Brown’s
recruitment to graduates. rules regarding recruitment should Business Council for Britain.
That said, the law does allow for change. The new law is still under
lawful discrimination in cases where development and employees should ❱❱ warwIck Brady
an employer can justify it as the be aware that it may give employers Warwick Brady has been ap-
only appropriate way of achieving a the right to insert a retirement age pointed as EasyJet’s new director
legitimate and necessary aim. One into a contract. of operations. This follows the
resignation of Cor Vrieswijk after
the firm came under fire for numer-
ous delayed and cancelled flights
during the 2010 summer season.
please email your useful links Warwick was formerly the
career questions www.acas.org.uk airline’s procurement director and
and job moves to www.ageuk.org.uk previously worked for rival budget
editorial@thecqi.org www.tuc.org.uk airline Ryanair.
54 | NOVEMBER 2010 | qw www.thecqi.org
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