Sir, - "Employers with 20 or more employees, including state and local governments, may not: discriminate against workers age 40 and older in hiring, firing, compensation, benefits, or any other aspect of employment because of age; indicate age preferences in notices or advertisements for employment; or retaliate against any individual for complaining about age discrimination or for helping with the investigation or litigation of an age discrimination charge."
The above comes from the United States Federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act which was enacted by Congress as long ago as 1967 to prohibit discrimination against older people and to combat the prejudices about older workers in society.
The Act is based on the important policy and fact that ability, not age, should determine an individual's qualifications for getting and keeping a job.
In 1992 accusations of age discrimination in staffing one of its financial services divisions cost American Express $35 million. There are many other examples to demonstrate how effective the US system has been. The kind of controversy which has occurred here with regard to the recent award of £8,000 against Ryanair shows how primitive we still are in our thinking in this respect. - Yours, etc.,
Michael Gorman, Sandymount, Dublin 4.