New age discrimination laws from the European Federation are coming into force today.

The new law will make it illegal for employers to discriminate against people because of their age – both old and young – which is a good thing.  However, the law also extends to career development and training, making it illegal not to offer the same training and development opportunities to someone based on their age.  This means that if a company offers training such as an NVQ to an 18 year old employee they also have to offer it to a 64 year old employee.

Whilst this may seem like a positive thing to ensure that older workers aren’t left on the scrapheap, the net effect will be a reduction in the training and development opportunities companies offer.  A company will be loath to offer expensive training courses to a member of staff they could theoretically get the benefit of for the next 47 years if they will be breaking the law by not offering the same course to someone who will retire in 12 months time.

Legislation is not the answer to age discrimination.  If companies are to seeolder people as a valuable asset then they need a carrot, not a stick.  Employing somebody is an expensive business and a lot of that expense is down to red tape and taxes that the employer has to pay.  Make it easier and cheaper to employ older people, possibly with free or subsidised training courses, and employers will consider them a valuable resource.