Firms face months of hard work drawing up policies to tackle age discrimination ahead of new legislation, according to a new report today.

Two out of five companies have no formal policy on age diversity, even though a new European directive making it unlawful to discriminate on grounds of age is due to be implemented by 2006, research found.

A survey of 83 employers in the private and public sector by IRS Employment Review found that many had an informal policy on age discrimination.

The report's author, Janet Egan, said: "Some employers will have to change stereotypical or hostile attitudes to older workers just as they had to change attitudes to race and sex when discrimination laws tackled them more than 25 years ago.

"The post-war baby boom generation is now heading rapidly for retirement age so it is in the interests of employers to have policies that encourage older workers to stay with them if they want enough workers to get the job done.

"The law is catching up on them now as well."

The firms surveyed said they did not discriminate against older workers but IRS said it was widely acknowledged that older applicants often failed to obtain a job interview if they revealed their age beforehand.

Monday August 18, 2003