Age Limit October 2006

[lypton village]

As of October 2006 employers can no longer discriminate against age.You won't have to put your date of birth on an application form, and there would be no restriction on age limits for job application.

How would this work out in the ATC position,why is there an age limit?

Cheers

LV

[rodan]

How would this work out in the ATC position,why is there an age limit?

The (rather arbitrary) age limit is there because it is known that people are (generally) sharper and more able to learn when they are younger, and air traffic is a very demanding mental arena. The theory is that once you get older you are able to rely more on experience instead.

How this will effect NATS, I don't know. Are there exemptions for safety-critical jobs?

[vfr800i]

Here's what the gov say:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/Employment/Employees/DiscriminationAtWork/DiscriminationAtWorkArticles/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=10026429&chk=q3aE%2B4

It seams that what they're trying to get against is UNFAIR age discrimination so there may be exceptions.

It's discrimination though saying "You're old so you can't learn as well", surely that has to be assessed on an individual basis?

[foghorn]

In certain cases employers will be able to discriminate based upon age, where the discrimination is "a proportionate response to a reasonable aim".

Significantly, it is highly likely that this will allow discrimination in jobs where the training takes a long time and where the employer bears a large cost during training.

Sound familiar? ATC is one of the exmples given by the government of where discrimination will still be allowed.