All workers are safe from age bias

Job seekers and current employees enjoy the protection of the Labour relations Act

IT WAS THE American comedian Bob Hope who said that you know you’re getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.

One of the other consequences of one’s age throughout one’s career is the prospect of being discriminated against for either being too old or too young.

Both the Labour Relations Act (LRA) and the Employment Equity Act (EEA) protect all employees against age discrimination, and indeed any form of discrimination which is arbitrary.

In the United States, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (1967) prohibits discrimination against employees between the ages of 40 and 70.

In order to establish a prima facie case of age discrimination in the US, a claimant must demonstrate that he or she:

1.Is in the protected class of which age discrimination is prohibited; all employees of all ages are protected against unfair age discrimination.

Age discrimination may not always be unfair however. It would not be unfair to prescribe an age limit when seeking to appoint a child to play the role of Peter Pan in a children’s play.

Similarly, it would not be a form of unfair gender discrimination to prescribe that the child must be male, as the inherent requirements of the job of playing Peter Pan are that the incumbent is male and young. was whether the employer committed an unfair labour practice by refusing to employ Ms Swart because she was three years older than the age limit specified in the advertisement placed in the press by the employer (which was listed as 25).

In this case, the employer attempted to justify it’s policy of not employing persons over 25 by submitting that:

1. The salary for the job is not high and is therefore normally only acceptable to young people who are using the job as a stepping stone to more remunerative employment.

2. Compatibility is important among employees and an older employee might be more reluctant to accept instructions from a younger person”.

The CCMA found, inter alia, that “If a person is prepared to work for the salary offered by the employer and is not averse to accepting instructions from a younger person, there is no reason why that person should not be able to perform the work”.

The applicant was awarded the equivalent of six month’s remuneration.