Date June 2008

Introduction and statement of intent

CONCEPT JOINERY LTD. is committed to ensuring that all employees are treated fairly irrespective of their age and has taken measures to ensure that it fully meets the requirements of the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006.

Age will not be a factor in any decisions made concerning recruitment & selection, access to employee benefits, opportunities for promotion or training, performance management, application of discipline or capability procedures or selection for redundancy.

Age discrimination and other equality policies

CONCEPT JOINERY LTD. demonstrates through its Equality and Diversity policy its commitment to ensure that all employees are treated fairly. The implementation of this policy will support and strengthen this commitment.

Retirement

The normal retirement age at CONCEPT JOINERY LTD. is 65 for male employees and 60 for female employees.  The actual retirement date can be varied by mutual consent.

It is recognised that many employees may seek, by mutual consent, to retire at an earlier age.

Employees who do not wish to be retired at the normal retirement age have the right to request to remain in employment beyond this age and CONCEPT JOINERY LTD. will consider any request made. At least six months prior to the planned retirement date, but not more than one year, CONCEPT JOINERY LTD. will write to employees informing them of their projected normal retirement date and the process to be followed should they wish to request to continue working. Any request to remain in employment beyond the normal retirement date must be submitted to their Manager no later than three months before the normal retirement date.

If CONCEPT JOINERY LTD. agrees to the request to continue working, any extension of employment will normally be for a fixed period of one year. Employees who wish to work on beyond that fixed period will again have the right to request to remain in employment and the same process of consideration, as outlined above, will be followed with any further extensions normally being for a fixed period of one year. This process will be repeated until actual retirement takes place

CONCEPT JOINERY LTD. will consider all requests from employees to work on beyond the normal retirement age and any decision reached will take into consideration a number of factors such as workforce planning requirements, recruitment needs and training & development needs.

Employees who are retained beyond the normal retirement date will still be subject to normal rules regarding Performance & Development Review, Competency, Conduct and Occupational Health.

Employees who have their request to work on refused will be entitled to appeal if they disagree with the decision. Any appeal will normally be heard by the next level of management.

Advertising

There will be no direct or indirect references to age in any recruitment adverts unless the requirement can be objectively justified.

Recruitment and Selection

The recruitment & selection process will be based on the skills and ability of the individual applicant and not their age. All employees involved in recruitment & selection will receive training to ensure compliance. The recruitment and selection policy will reflect the need to ensure age does not form part of the recruitment & selection process.

Benefits

CONCEPT JOINERY LTD. recognises that incremental pay progression and other service-based rewards are an acknowledgement of the increasing experience and loyalty of employees. Any such rewards will be in line with the requirements of the Age Discrimination Regulations.

Absence management

The absence management process will be applied to all employees regardless of age. Monitoring of absence trends in age groups will take place to ensure that the absence management process is being fairly applied across all age groups.

Performance management

There is a recognition that age (young or old) can impact on performance. Issues such as inexperience or difficulty in quickly grasping new technologies can be as a result of age therefore performance management procedures will be monitored to ensure that disproportionate action is not being taken against any particular age group.

Training and promotion

Training and promotion opportunities will be available to all employees and in selecting individuals for training or promotion, the criteria used will be robust enough to ensure that individuals cannot be excluded as a result of being too young or too old. Direct or indirect references to age in Performance & Development Reviews will not be used.

Redundancy selection and payments

Any redundancy selection policy used will be based on objective criteria.

Monitoring

CONCEPT JOINERY LTD. will monitor recruitment & selection, access to promotion & training and the use of procedures such as the disciplinary procedure to ensure that no particular age group is being unfairly treated on the grounds of their age.

Implementation and responsibilities

CONCEPT JOINERY LTD. has identified a senior CONCEPT JOINERY LTD. manager as its Age Discrimination Champion to ensure that CONCEPT JOINERY LTD.'s strategic agenda reflects issues of age.

All line managers are responsible for familiarising themselves with this policy, ensuring that it is applied and for making their employees aware of it. Individual employees are also responsible for familiarising themselves with this policy.

Signed.         Lee G Hallard                   Date    10.10.2008

On behalf of Lee Hallard Building Services

© Lee Hallard Building Services (Concept Joinery Ltd. T/a)   2008

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