Extending Working Life for Older Workers: Age Discrimination Law, Policy and Practice

Description

The UK population is ageing rapidly. While age discrimination laws are seen as having broad potential to address the 'ageing challenge' and achieve instrumental and intrinsic objectives in the context of employment, it is unclear what impact they are having in practice. This monograph addresses two overarching research questions in the employment field: How are UK age discrimination laws operating in practice? How (if at all) could UK age discrimination laws be improved? A reflexive law theoretical standpoint is employed to investigate these issues, applying a mixed methods research design that engages qualitative, quantitative, doctrinal and comparative elements. This book demonstrates the substantial limitations of the Equality Act 2010 (UK) for achieving instrumental and intrinsic objectives. Drawing on qualitative expert interviews, statistical analysis and organisational case studies, it illustrates the failure of age discrimination laws to achieve attitudinal change in the UK, and reveals the limited prevalence of proactive measures to support older workers. Integrating doctrinal analysis, comparative analysis of Finnish law, and the Delphi method, it proposes targeted legal and policy changes to address demographic change, and offers an agenda for reform that may increase the impact of age discrimination laws, and enable them to respond effectively to demographic ageing. Runner up of the 2017 SLS Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship! Preface Contents List of Defined Terms and Abbreviations 1 Introduction I. Implications of Ageing for Labour Law II. The Role of Discrimination Law for an Ageing Population III. Research Questions IV. Chapter Overview 2 Methodology I. Methodology II. Research Framework III. Research Design IV. Conclusion 3 A Doctrinal Critique of UK Age Discrimination Laws I. Legal Regulation of Age Discrimination II. Limitations of Existing Laws III. Ways Forward IV. Conclusion 4 Expert Perspectives on the Operation of Age Discrimination Laws I. Expert Views on the Efficacy of Law II. Analysis III. Conclusion 5 Generalising the Qualitative Findings-Quantitative Analysis of WERS6 I. The Wers6 Data Set II. "Compliance" Approaches in UK Workplaces III. Age-Aware Workplaces IV. Age-Aware Practices Over Time V. Workplaces that Adopt Age-Aware Practices Over Time VI. Conclusion 6 A Comparative Perspective-The Case of Finland I. Finnish Legal Provisions II. Practical Implementation III. Comparative Analysis of the Uk and Finland IV. Conclusion 7 Explaining the Quantitative Findings-Organisational Case Studies I. Why Organisations Adopt "Best Practice" II. Overview of the Case Studies III. Overview of the Case Study Organisations IV. Case Study Findings V. Discussion VI. Conclusion 8 Constructing Future Scenarios-The Delphi Method I. The Delphi Survey II. Results III. Analysis IV. Conclusion 9 Conclusion I. How are the Laws Operating in Practice? II. How might the Laws be Improved? III. Conclusion Appendix 1-Glossary of Statistical Terms and Tests Index