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ase, it should be clearly stated. This is known as positive action and is lawful. However, positive discrimination is unlawful, so employers should ensure that all ages are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.) Age criteria should never be taken into account in employment decisions but should be gathered for monitoring purposes. This information can be asked for in a ‘tear-off’ section of the application form and be kept separate from the application process. Failure to have good management data could count against employers in an employment tribunal. Interviewers and those concerned with selection must not be subjective on the basis of physical characteristics and unfounded assumptions, and must ensure their decisions are based on objective criteria, relevant to the job and merit. The age regulations make it unlawful to base decisions on appearance or perceived age, whether that is older or younger.

Medical advicewww.51lunwen.orgAn individual’s age should not be used to make judgements about their abilities or fitness. Where such a judgement is required, an occupational health or medical practitioner should be consulted. Age should not be used as a factor in physical test requirements.
Reward
Pay and terms of employment should not be based on age, but should reflect the value of individual contributions and standards of job performance. CIPD members can find more information and advice in our factsheet Age discrimination: reward policies and procedures.
Training and development
All employees should be eligible for training and development programmes as there is the potential to waste talent if particular age groups, eg those near retirement, are automatically excluded.www.51lunwen.org

Promotion
In Ireland where there has been similar age legislation for some years, their experience has shown that employers need to apply the same rigour to promotion policies as are applied to recruitment.

Staff retention
There is considerable evidence that flexible working patterns support retention and encourage return to work ‡° see our flexible working factsheet for more information.
If your organisation encourages flexible working or promotes work-life balance, this should be available to all ages groups. It would be unlawful to offer flexible working arrangements such as shorter hours, part-time working, secondments and, perhaps, employment breaks, just to older workers.

Redundancy
When releasing employees, the organisation’s future needs for knowledge, skills and competencies should be taken into account ‡° the ‘corporate memory’ needs protection. Many organisations in the past have found it ‘easier’ to use ‘last in-first out’ (LIFO) as a method of selecting for redundancy. This is likely to be unlawful as it may be indirectly discriminatory, with younger workers being made redundant ahead of older workers. Coaching and mentoring are just some of the techniques that will ensure your business does not lose skills.

Retirement
Requests to work beyond retriement age must be properly considered. Seventy per cent of 50-year olds stay on in work until state pension age. Research from CIPD1 indicates that many older workers would welcome an opportunity:
for phased retirement
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