Ready, Willing And Able – Older Workers

In 2006 when the TUC published its report, Ready, Willing and Able, on older workers in the workplace and the effect on the economy, it envisaged a completely different type of workplace in the future. The impact of the digital age had not been truly felt. In many ways the workplace has been revolutionised but in others it remains the same. The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 and the Equality Act 2010 are still being flouted by employers, albeit in a covert way, for example, by using advertising on platforms that allow them to limit who can see job vacancies and filter out older candidates. A surprising 67% of employers admitted to deliberately choosing candidates aged under 35 and almost the same number admitted to using IT tools to narrow the target based on excluding candidates on such criterion as age.