Is this legal?

[colin79666]

In a sandwich shop today and there is a notice up along the lines of:
Part time positions available. Preferably 17-20 year olds.

The owner may just be suggesting it would make a good Saturday job for a teenager but then why not just say “may suit students” rather than call out the age? I’m thinking this may be a minimum wage thing but the law prohibits discrimination on age when hiring unless they can argue they wouldn’t discriminate a candidate if they applied (but who would given the sign)...

[rog007]

The Equality Act 2010 says you mustn’t be discriminated against because of your age. Discrimination which is against the Equality Act is unlawful. If you’ve experienced unlawful discrimination, you may be able to do something about it.

They’re stating a preference only at this point. It would be up to the 55 year old to prove he didn’t get the gig because of his age.

As I understand it.

[ferrariF50lover]

Absolutely not.

There's no way you'd be able to employ even a single year-old, let alone twenty of them.

[JuniorD]

ferrariF50lover said:

Absolutely not.

There's no way you'd be able to employ even a single year-old, let alone twenty of them.

That would be quite the jobshare arrangement

[anonymous-user]

rog007 said:

The Equality Act 2010 says you mustn’t be discriminated against because of your age. Discrimination which is against the Equality Act is unlawful. If you’ve experienced unlawful discrimination, you may be able to do something about it.

They’re stating a preference only at this point. It would be up to the 55 year old to prove he didn’t get the gig because of his age.

As I understand it.

The advert is a plain indication of an intention to discriminate, and it would readily be inferred by a tribunal that an candidate older than twenty had been declined because of age.

[anonymous-user]

Breadvan72 said:

rog007 said:

The Equality Act 2010 says you mustn’t be discriminated against because of your age. Discrimination which is against the Equality Act is unlawful. If you’ve experienced unlawful discrimination, you may be able to do something about it.

They’re stating a preference only at this point. It would be up to the 55 year old to prove he didn’t get the gig because of his age.

As I understand it.

The advert is a plain indication of an intention to discriminate, and it would readily be inferred by a tribunal that an candidate older than twenty had been declined because of age.

I do feel it is sad that a benevolent employer can't actually say what they actually want like: "Would suit school leaver as training and coaching will be provided". I've taken on apprentices in the past (as I was one years back) and wanted to give skills to a young person who had nothing else going for them. But you can't say that nowadays else an older person will immediately claim discrimination and win. B&Q are well known for taking on older workers due to their knowledge of DIY etc. I don't see why an employer can't be allowed to bend one way or the other a bit.

[anonymous-user]

You can run apprenticeship schemes. There is express provision for such things.