Age Discrimination and Job Applications

[hoboken]

If an applicant is in her twenties she may go off and get pregnant.

If she is in her thirties she will have children whose illness or childcare breakdown could cause problems

If she is in her forties she might be a safer bet

If she is in her fifties she may not be fit

If she is in her sixties forget it

Employers pay lip service to legislation and say they do not discriminate on grounds of age. Just to make sure they can do so anyway and hopefully not be spotted they ask for dates when qualifications were obtained or actually ask for date of birth 'which will be kept securely, separate from the application and not used as part of the application process' Of course it will.

Discuss. Would be very interested to hear what employers, HR people and managers really think about taking on over 60s

I will do voluntary work and have a lot of interests but would rather, even at 61, not be considered as past it with regard to paid employment.

I work in a University.

Any applications I receive have the 'secure and separate' page removed before the application comes to me.

Dates of generic qualifications (e.g. GCSEs) are blanked out, specific time limited are left in (e.g. Prince has a 5 year span before renewal is due ).

Dates of previous employment are also blanked . We get to see these once an offer has been made and we start references. So we don't know if some has degree plus 4 x 2 year jobs (roughly 30) of degree plus 4 x 8 year jobs (roughly 55) assuming no gap years.

Obviously unless they blindfold us We can see how old someone is when they walk into the interview room. And we can also see if someone is of OLevel or GCSE generation.

My last hire (senior admin) who started at Easter had her 60th birthday party last night; lovely competent woman (&lovely party).

Here I think they do all thats reasonable, and as far as I know I've never discrimated.

I was shocked at the age discrimination I witnessed at my last job. Comments like"looks alright, but he's an old codger"
or "1956, are you having a laugh?"
It led to quite a few disagreements, and, yes I did pint out it is illegal.

I work for a charity and often recruit. All the age indicating information is removed from any applications before I receive them. Often something within the application will give an indication of age, such something written in the personal statement, but as far as possible HR ensure I don't have access to anything indicating age.

I would want to know if someone had 4 2 year as opposed to 4 8 year jobs. There's a reason that person keeps moving on and it might happen to my business too, causing me disruption and expense.

I also work in Further Education and do not see any age discrimination.

My admin assistant is in her seventies and is amazing. She got the job when she was in her sixties. I also just hired a woman in her early thirties who has one 18 month old child and who is fairly likely to have another I should think.

Would just like to point out though that your National Insurance number gives away your year of birth. The two letter code at the start of it gives away your age to any experienced HR practitioner.

All sectors of employment have some form of discrimination IMO. I work in retail. I started work after many years of caring responsibilities. I am struggling to get off the bottom rung although I have made it clear I want progression. Younger staff members are leap frogging me with promotional opportunities. They are no 'better' than me in terms of skills.in fact probably less so I can only summise that they view me too old to invest in.

strikethrough fail

Thank you for responses (my return to the thread was delayed as I have been writing more applications today). Choco and Hampton, you give me cause for at least a little hope. Yes, the list of 'O' levels is a giveaway (and so is the date of my degree). I am optimistic of getting employment even if I have to pursue an idea for a small business. Good luck to you Boaty - I hope your experience wins through.

I work in HR. I recruit the best people for the roles I have to fill. I have recruited teenagers. I have recruited people in their sixties. Sometimes people don't get the job because they don't have as good skills, experience, competencies, behaviors and attitudes as other applicants. HTH.

I think people who work in HR are very good at correctly applying employment law. However, I think there's a lot of ignorant managers that will not think twice about discriminating against an applicant.