Government "dragging its feet" over age discrimination laws

3.07.26pm GMT Tue 2nd Dec 2003

West Midlands Euro-MP Liz Lynne will be meeting with a number of anti-age discrimination campaigners at a special meeting of the European Parliament Third and Fourth Age Intergroup today.

The meeting is being called to coincide with the deadline to implement the European Employment Directive. This Directive will outlaw discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, sexuality and religion in employment law.

In the UK, regulations outlawing discrimination on the grounds of sexuality and religion will take effect from today. However, the European Commission has granted the Government an extension of the deadline to implement legislation on the grounds of disability by October 2004 and has three years to implement the age-based legislation.

At this evening's meeting, MEPs will be meeting with experts from AGE, the European Older People's Platform. Speaking in advance of the meeting Liz, who led for the European Liberal Democrats on the original Employment Directive, said:

"It is welcome that the Government has met the deadline in implementing the sexuality and religion-based anti-discrimination legislation from today, but they have been dragging their feet in implementing legislation to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of age. We had to fight the government tooth and nail to keep age discrimination in the Directive and they have requested the maximum extension allowable to implement it.

"All this suggests that they will be attempting to weaken the legislation as much as possible when it is entered into UK law. This would be a disgrace after years of work to build a consensus by campaigners and MEPs from all parties."

Liz Lynne is a member of the European Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee.

Notes to editors:

The legislation to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of disability in the UK has been granted a one-year extension in order to coincide with the implementation of Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act. European and UK employment law already covers discrimination on the grounds of gender and race.