EC Legislation Prohibiting Age Discrimination: “Towards a Europe for All Ages”?

Abstract

In 2000 the European Community adopted the General Framework Directive aimed at combating discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation as regards employment and occupation. This important measure followed closely on the heels of the Race Discrimination Directive adopted earlier in the year. The adoption of these measures was made possible after the Treaty of Amsterdam inserted a new Article 13 into the EC Treaty which empowered the Community to adopt measures to combat discrimination on the above grounds, as well as in the fields of sex, race and ethnicity. While Article 13 was greeted with much acclaim, doubts were expressed as to whether or not binding measures would be forthcoming. As it has turned out, such pessimism was unwarranted and the Community has now adopted measures aimed at eliminating discrimination on all the grounds specified in Article 13. The adoption of these directives is, therefore, a highly significant expansion of the Community’s competence and ensures the continued development of the Community beyond its original purely economic focus.

Addressing age stereotyping against older workers in employment

“…It is, as Lady Justice Smith put it in Johns v Solent SD Ltd [13], an “unusual provision in European Law”. Unsurprisingly Article 6(1) generated a large volume of literature and controversy (Meenan, 2007; Sargeant, 2006; Waddington, 2003; Hepple, 2001; McGlynn, 2000). The European Commission (1999, p. 10) explained that Article 6(1) limits the “possibilities of claiming justification in cases of direct discrimination to exceptional situations concerning the ground of age”.…”