Environs of discrimination WHERE DOES IT HAPPEN?

• In employment and profession

Except the aforementioned discrimination in access to employment, it is also considered discrimination if employees are assessed and rewarded or not based on age. If it is a common rule for a firm that an employee should be promoted before reaching a certain wage category, it is discriminatory to senior employees if a recent graduate is given the same wage while “skipping” the whole system of rewards. Also, young workers for the same work performance being rewarded better than older employees - perhaps justified by stating that “they have families” - is a demonstration of age discrimination.

• In healthcare

Due to a ministry directive, a vitally important medical treatment is unavailable to patients with sclerosis multiplex if they are over 45.

• In social affairs

It is discriminatory when state authorities do not act in a case where rights of children in residential care are not upheld. Discrimination based on age may be tied to discrimination based on social status (children in an orphanage), health impairment (children in nursing homes), and even multiplied by racial discrimination (impaired orphans are Roma).

• In products and services provision

During a presentation performed on an excursion or in a restaurant selling various products (cosmetics, house wares, blankets, dishes, etc) flyers are given out by firms stating that all married couples will receive a gift. This can be seen as indirect discrimination based on age as statistics support that the chance is less for both young and old people to be participating in an existing marriage. It is more likely that they be living in cohabitation, be widowed, or divorced. Also, a rule exists that bans taxi-drivers from driving an infant without the use of a child safety seat and as such a seat occupies a lot of room inside a car, many taxi-drivers do not keep one and refuse to drive young children. In doing so, they discriminate against young children as well as their parents.

• At offices

Office clerks often behave inappropriately toward the elderly, calling them “aunty”, “gramps”, etc. They are unwilling to explain things adequately, presuming that an old person is weak-minded. It can happen that an old man comes to an office with his son and the officer talks exclusively with the son while mentioning the old man in third person as if he is not there or he is deaf or suffering from dementia. Such treatment by the officer can be considered harassment.

• In school

An age limit for access to retraining courses for the unemployed or stipends for students over 35 is considered discrimination. Similarly, it is harassment if a student of advanced-age who decides to broaden their qualification through studying at university is ridiculed by students or faculty.

• At the police, in court

It is discriminatory for the police and legal authorities to provide ineffective legal protection against attacks on the rights and freedoms of those considered “too young” or “too old”.

• In different situations

The way in which media tends to categorize people by age is discriminatory. This is demonstrated in an article entitled “Attractive Even Past 40”, which suggests that women over 40 are generally unattractive. Moreover, women over 40 are almost not mentioned in feminine magazines at all.