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Fifty years ago this week, this newspaper, after much prodding from protesters, effectively dropped ''Help Wanted -- Female'' and ''Help Wanted -- Male'' from its classified ads and went to [...]

Byline: Reuters Being overweight or obese is not only bad for your health but can also be bad for your career, according to a U.S. study. As obesity rates in [...]

Ageism in the workplace is rife in the UK, costing British government and industry 26 billion pounds sterling/yr. in benefits and lost earnings, according to the Employers Forum on Age. Director of Manchester University's Age and Cognitive Performance Centre Professor Rabbit points out that research has produced no evidence to support generally held beliefs about the performance of older people at work. The Government is taking action by issuing a Code of Practice for Age Diversity in Employment on Jun. 14, 1999. However the code is entirely voluntary and most employers are likely to ignore it.

The UK workplace suffers from institutionalised ageism, the proportion of men aged between 55 and 65 who are without work having risen from one-fifth in 1979 to two-fifths in 1999. The 1999 Budget included proposals to help older workers, but career consultant Bill Robbins believes that a change in attitudes is needed, rather than legislation. Enlightened employers such as hardware giant B&Q have demonstrated the benefits of taking on older workers, yet most businesses persist in the totally mistaken belief that older people are less adaptable and less trainable.

Campaigners against ageism fear that the Government neither understands the issues nor recognises the long-term impact of age discrimination. The Government appears to be backing away from its pre-election pledge to introduce comprehensive legislation to outlaw age discrimination in employment. The Government has yet to endorse Labour Member of Parliament Linda Perham's Employment (Age Discrimination in Advertisements) Bill, and its New Deal for the unemployed is aimed at younger age groups. Charity Age Concern receives hundreds of complaints each month about ageism at work.

Consultant in women's leadership development Nancy Kline believes that women are just as hungry for influence in the world as men, but that women lack the self-confidence and sense of self-worth needed to win promotion to the top jobs normally occupied by men. Women suffer from the stereotyping of certain jobs as 'women's work' and from their reluctance to make claims under equal pay or sex discrimination legislation. Some women establish their own businesses out of a sense of frustration at the limited opportunities available to them in male-dominated areas such as the legal profession.

Retailer B&Q increased its profits by 18% when it employed older people yet Barclays is planning to allow some of its staff to retire at 45. People are increasingly at risk of being made redundant or being pensioned off once they reach the age of 50, the proportion of men aged 55-65 in employment having fallen from 95% in 1979 to around 60% in 1999. Age discrimination not only wastes the talents of a large part of the population, as employment minister Andrew Smith points out, but the employer's forum on age estimates that it costs the economy 5.5 billion pounds sterling/yr.

Age discrimination in the workplace is no longer restricted to 50-year-old executives with lengthy CVs. Sarah Wilson graduated with a first class degree in business studies in summer 1998 but no employer has wanted to recruit her because she is 31. Kendra Perrot was 26 when she graduated with an MA in media production, too old for the film industry which expects recruits to be 21 and straight out of college. Employers' perception that older people are inflexible is false since older graduates have proved that they can adapt and relearn by going back to university as mature students.

Four school bus drivers, all aged over 65, who were dismissed by Wandsworth Council in south London, England, despite having been told in 1996 that their jobs were secure, are invoking European Community law to file an unfair dismissal claim. The UK still has no anti-age discrimination laws despite Labour's promise, in opposition, to make age discrimination illegal. The case of warehouse manager James Nash who, in Feb. 1998, became the first British worker to succeed in an unfair dismissal claim over the age of 65, will be heard by the European Appeal Tribunal later in 1998.