22 June 2004
Malcolm Wicks MP, Minister of State for Pensions
Age Positive – Employers Awards
22 June 2004
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Good evening ladies and gentlemen. It’s a great pleasure to be with you here at Number 11. I would like to thank all of you for your support for the Age Positive campaign.
As Employer Champions you are leading the way. You play a vital role – highlighting the benefits of having a mixed age workforce and encouraging others to end age discrimination by judging on ability alone. I am glad to see so many of you represented here.
Together we have already achieved so much. I look forward to your continuing support as we take the campaign to all employers across the UK.
Press coverage in the last couple of days has shown how easy it is for people to get the wrong end of the stick about age discrimination.
The Government has no intention of raising the State Pension age above 65 and no plans to force people to work longer.
What we are planning to do is give people more choices and opportunities to work longer – if they want to, as many do.
Legislation outlawing age discrimination is part of this. There are complex issues involved, particularly around retirement. We have not yet made a decision, but we are committed to finding an approach which is good for individuals and good for business.
Of course, the legislation is about more than retirement ages – it will contribute to eliminating ageism throughout working life.
Today I am delighted to announce that another employer – Maritz – is here to join us as an Age Positive Champion. Maritz are a marketing services company – a sector widely seen as having a young age profile. But Maritz are a forward-looking employer like yourselves. They see the benefits of developing a workforce from a broad range of ages. They have changed their employment procedures and developed new policies to avoid age discrimination and encourage age diversity.
And it is a special pleasure to reveal that Maritz are in fact our 100th Employer Champion! I am very pleased to welcome Maritz – and present this Employer Champion certificate to their representatives, Jo Betts and Dave Watkins.