Last year Ed Sweeney, ACAS chair, said: The removal of the DRA will raise practical issues for employers in managing the older worker such as succession and workforce planning performance management and ensuring consistency and fairness in their policies and practices. This was an understatement to say the least.
On 13th January ACAS published their Guidance for employers. For our busy client we have summarised the document below. which outlined recommendations which he believed would improve health and safety procedures in workplaces. The reforms are aimed at returning workplaces to ‘common sense safety’.
The report outlined Lord Young’s view that there is alarm amongst business owners of the increase in compensation claims resulting in the implementation of extremely risk averse policies. The aim of these proposals was to eradicate this fear., activities or outcomes
Development or training needs
Employer’s future plan
Aims and aspirations of the employee
Future performance requirements
We must emphasise that whilst we support the practice of such reviews, our experience is that the quality of such meetings is extremely variable and requires training so that good quality information is obtained and that management do not inadvertently fall into the traps of discriminatory behaviour on the grounds of age or any other of the eight protected characteristics of discrimination.
