“They will also have to offer training and development throughout an employee’s working career from recruitment through to retirement,” he says.

The legislation demands that employers include age in equal opportunity policies and grievance procedures as well as any equality and diversity policies they might have.

“Companies will have to be seen to be taking age discrimination seriously,” adds Andrew Egan, “Redundancy and retirement policies will need to be checked as the upper age limits on redundancy payments and unfair dismissal claims are to be removed.”

A default retirement age of 65 will be introduced so it will be unlawful for employers to make retirement below that age compulsory. The legislation also applies to any recruitment agencies a company may work with and anyone employed as an agency worker or engaged under another type of contract.

“The role of the HR manager will be pivotal in this,” says Andrew Egan. “I recently came across an instance where an employee in his early 50s was discriminated against and told that he was too old for training and promotion. He had even been excluded from meetings by younger work colleagues because he was regarded as a ‘bit of an old fogie’.

“Under the legislation it will be virtually impossible to do this – and companies need to make clear to employees, through staff manuals, noticeboards, handbooks etc that this sort of behaviour will just not be tolerated.

You can contact Andrew Egan on 01793 511055 or andrew.egan@clmlaw.co.uk