Blackstone's guide to the Age Equality Regulations 2006

The "Blackstone's Guide Series" delivers concise and accessible books covering the latest legislative changes and amendments.

Published within weeks of the Act, they offer expert commentary by leading names on the effects, extent and scope of the legislation, plus a full copy of the Act itself.

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The new Employment Equality (Age) Regulations, coming into force in October 2006, will be the most significant and challenging extension of the law of discrimination to have taken place for many years.

Unlike most forms of discrimination, age discrimination affects, or is capable of affecting, everyone in society.

Discrimination on grounds of age is arguably the most pervasive and accepted form of discrimination in society and in the workplace, the existence of a 'maximum retirement age' being a particularly illustrative example. The new Regulations are based on the EC Framework Directive (Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 Establishing a Framework for Equal Treatment in Employment) and follow the structure of the Employment Equality Regulations 2003.

However, there are many significant differences between the Regulations and other domestic anti-discrimination law provisions, a main one being that they provide that all direct discrimination (as opposed to exceptional categories) can be justified.

Therefore, retirement, pensions, service-related pay, and benefits, all raise many important issues covered by the Regulations.

This Guide will analyse and comment upon the provisions of the Regulations.

It will examine the way case-law has developed in other fields of discrimination (sex, race, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation) in order to provide guidance on how the Regulations on age discrimination are likely to be interpreted.

The commentary in the guide will be structured in a clear and logical way, and will contain the full text of the Regulations.