The Ageing Society

The General Act on Equal Treatment prohibits, among other things, discrimination on grounds of age. Are you satisfied with the new legislation?

Yes indeed. As it stands, Germany's General Act on Equal Treatment goes beyond what is required by the EU directives. The German legislation covers discrimination on the basis of age in access to goods and services as well.

Isn't that required by the EU's framework legislation?

No, the EU directives only required domestic legislation to cover age discrimination in employment and vocational training. This would make it illegal to discriminate against anyone because of their age in the workplace or when they apply for a job or vocational training. But there was no requirement, under European law, to introduce provisions that make it illegal to discriminate on the basis of age in access to goods and services, so the relationship between older customers, banks and insurance companies, for example, would not have been addressed.

What impact is the Act having? Does it mean that at job interviews, it is no longer permissible to ask a candidate's age, as is the case in the USA?

No, that won't happen in Germany. Our legislation is less stringent, although in my personal view, this is a very interesting issue. You could argue that such a regulation could facilitate older people's access to the job market, or at least help them overcome the first hurdle, namely getting an interview. But I have to admit that this is quite a controversial issue among our own organisations.

Why is that?

Because a legal provision of that nature would be a revolutionary break with current practice. In Germany, application documents customarily include a photograph and curriculum vitae, and that means a full CV, which plays a key role in the recruitment process. For many people, breaking with this approach would be a major step which would be hard to accept. I myself think it would be a very good thing, but it is not required by the new legislation.

If age continues to operate, in effect, as an exclusion criterion in the recruitment process, when is age discrimination deemed to occur under the new Act?

The new Act requires older and younger workers to be treated equally. For example, older workers must be given the same opportunities as younger staff to participate in in-company training and development schemes. This is certainly not the case at present. Training and development programmes rarely cater for older workers, and by that I mean the over 40s. This makes it more difficult for older people to update their skills, which in turns makes it harder for them to find a new job if necessary.

Older people account for a large percentage of the unemployed. Why aren't older people being recruited? What are employers worried about?

One concern is certainly that older people are not as innovative and that their technical skills are out of date. But gerontological studies have shown that in terms of their physical capacities, older workers are able to achieve almost exactly the same level of performance as younger people, especially as physical strength is no longer a primary requirement in very many occupations. And where the concerns are perhaps justified, it is generally because older workers' skills gap is the result of industry's failure to provide adequate training for them throughout their careers. We have some good examples to illustrate this point, and progress is now being made in this area.

But what about the older people who are looking for jobs?

Less is happening here, unfortunately. Experts predict that the opportunities for older unemployed people will not improve until there is an upturn in the labour market situation as a whole. This is a very difficult area. There is a study from North Rhine-Westphalia which shows that many companies greatly value their older workers for their abilities and expertise, know-how, social skills, and even for their loyalty – these are the qualities associated with older workers. And yet the same companies are often not prepared to recruit older workers.

So a new law is unlikely to change anything?

Of course, that's a very difficult question – to what extent do laws change behaviour and attitudes? In my view, the new Act is important simply because it draws attention to this issue; the media are also taking an interest and there may be a court case or two. It is a good way of raising the public's awareness of this issue. In the medium and long term, the Act will have a positive impact and change attitudes in the corporate sector. That was what happened with gender equality. Indeed, it worked very well. A great deal has been achieved in that area.

The Act regulates aspects of civil law as well as employment law. In which areas of everyday life are people suffering age discrimination?

Of course, there is a very broad spectrum of discrimination on grounds of age. It starts with health and the provision of healthcare. Older people often do not receive an appropriate level of services because their conditions are ascribed to age. This type of misdiagnosis can be viewed as a form of age discrimination. It has no basis in law but results from the fact that doctors and other medical staff lack the appropriate training and skills in geriatric medicine and geriatric psychiatry.

Earlier on, you mentioned access to goods and services …

Yes, that is another area, especially in the insurance sector. The insurance companies apply very specific age restrictions, especially for private health insurance. This means that certain types of policy are not available to the over 65s or over 70s. One example is top-up health insurance, especially for travel abroad. We carried out a study which showed that only around 50% of companies offer these types of services for older people. And even if top-up insurance schemes are available, a 60- or 70-year-old pays much higher premiums. It is difficult to say whether this price difference is discriminatory because the insurance companies do not publish their data. We do accept these different prices if they are based on risk calculations. What we do not accept is that people are being completely excluded from certain types of services simply on the basis of their age.