From Ageism to Age Equality: Addressing the Challenges ...

Article 6, which provides governments with the facility to exempt certain actions by employersand governments from being defined as illegal even if they are clearly discriminatory. This is themost important part of the Directive for determining the levels of protection from agediscrimination from which workers can benefit. The Directive suggests criteria whichgovernments may focus on when defining an exemption: if there are, for example, ‘legitimateemployment policy, labour market or training requirements’. Employers who want to useexemptions, however, must be able to justify them as reasonable and necessary. This is ademanding test and one that will be explored in many employment tribunals. The debate overthe implementation of this Article has been protracted in many States and I anticipate that thelegal cases testing the transpositions will be even more protracted.Beyond the legal details of the Directive, there are also important requirements placed ongovernments to consult stakeholders, including non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and raiseawareness among people and organisations with rights and responsibilities under the law. Unlike therace and gender legislation, however, the Framework Employment Directive does not requiregovernments to set up a body such as The Equality Authority to promote awareness and adviseindividuals.There has been much concern expressed by age sector organisations, including AGE, about theFramework Employment Directive. When the original negotiations were taking place, age sectorNGOs were dissatisfied that the legislation was to be restricted to employment and training when itis known that older people also face discrimination in other areas including healthcare, housing andfinancial services. We were also concerned that the drafting of Article 6 in particular would provideloopholes that would blunt the effectiveness of the Directive; we worked hard to eliminate these asfar as we could. This being said, we are also clear that, if effectively implemented, the FrameworkEmployment Directive offers the following significant gains for older people:59it offers an opportunity to promote awareness of age discrimination, a form of discriminationwhich is barely recognised in Europe but which was first banned in Canada in 1964 and in theUSA in 1967it positions age alongside other forms of discrimination and presents an opportunity to develop abroader, more positive approach to equality and diversity which recognises the complexities ofidentity experienced by most peopleit provides a platform to raise wider issues including those linked to goods and services, housingand images of older peopleit begins to deal with the under-employment of older people, a key issue within Europeaneconomyit bans age discrimination in job advertisements and recruitment, training and development,retirement, pay and promotion.Response of National GovernmentsCritical to achieving the changes which underpin the Directive is the response of nationalgovernments. There are three elements to this (what we at AGE call the ‘Triangle of Activity’) whichneed to be coordinated and integrated: legislation; culture change; and support services. Firstly,having agreed to the legislation, it is our view that governments must transpose and enact theDirective effectively. Secondly, age discrimination is ingrained within European culture. It is thereforeFrom Ageism to Age Equality: Addressing the Challenges