UK STILL LAGGING BEHIND ON AGE DISCRIMINATION AT WORK

12.00.00am GMT Tue 13th Nov 2007

Despite a seven-year old directive outlaw equal treatment in the work place, many European countries including the UK are badly behind in implementing measures to ensure everyone has an equal chance of success at work and in finding work.

The was the conclusion at the European Parliament's Intergoup on Ageing annual review of the Employment Directive, where a resolution was adopted to this effect today in Strasbourg. The review was chaired by Liberal Democrat MEP Liz Lynne, Vice President of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee, who worked to ensure that age was included in the EU "Employment" directive which forced the Government to bring forward legislation banning age discrimination in the workplace.

Commenting today Liz said;

"The UK Government was one of the last EU countries to fulfill its obligations and bring forward legislation outlawing discrimination in the workplace on the basis of age, having fought incredibly fiercely to exclude age from the original EU directive."

"Unhappily, not enough progress has been made; Member States need to thoroughly and regularly assess what has and will be done to fully implement this directive and convincingly justify any exemptions.

"The fight also continues on another front - the provision of goods and services. Scandalously, it is still lawful for some companies and health care providers to discriminate on the grounds of age, which is clearly an unacceptable situation. This is why I will continue to work with the European Commission, who will next year bring forward new laws to outlaw discrimination on the basis of age in the provision of goods and services."

ENDS

Notes to editors

Photo caption: Liz Lynne MEP (centre) with Vincent Depaigne, legal expert from the European Commission (l) and Anne-Sophie Parent, Director of AGE (r)

Liz Lynne is Vice President of the European Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee and co chair of the European Parliaments age intergroup.

Liz Lynne was the Liberal Democrat Shadow Rapporteur on the European Employment Directive 2000 and with Age Concern and Eurolink Age ensured age was retained within the Directive.

Age anti-discrimination legislation was introduced in the UK in 2006 as a direct result of the European Employment Directive 2000. Under this directive, discrimination in the employment field on the grounds of a person's disability, age, religion or sexual orientation must be outlawed in all EU countries. The deadline for introducing this directive into member state law was December 2003. However, The UK government requested a delay of 12 months to introduce legislation to outlaw disability discrimination, and 3 years to outlaw age discrimination.