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An alarmingly high proportion of job adverts are in breach of laws on ageism, a new survey has found.
A study by law firm DWF found that 21 per cent of 200 examined could be construed as ageist.
The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, which came into force on October 1st last year, have made it illegal to discriminate against employees or potential employees on grounds of their age.
What too few employers realise, DWF has warned, is that careless choices of words can leave them on the wrong side of the law. The regulations, as they stand, prohibit discrimination equally against older candidates and younger ones.
Employment partner at DWF Kirsty Moore told The Recruiter: "One of the biggest problems was that 12 per cent of all adverts specified a minimum level of experience, which could rule out younger people who might be equally capable of carrying out the role.
"Sloppy wording within advertisements is leaving employers open to tribunal claims. Job candidates can bring a claim on the basis of an advert even though they are not employed by the company. We advise employers to review any current adverts and the policies that they follow before publicising a position to ensure that they limit this risk."
The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) calculates the cost to the British economy of age discrimination at a staggering £750 million per annum.
DWFs study found that 27 per cent of the adverts included some form of discriminatory wording, including alongside ageism, sexism and disability discrimination.
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