Re: Linux System Engineer (100%) in Zurich
martin f krafft <madduck@debian.org> writes:
> Wolfgang, please stop this. Putting a maximum age into a job description
> is standard practice because a company does not want to invest time and
> money into a new employee for various reasons, be they simple age and
> thus time left to work for the company, absorptive capacity, or company
> culture.
Different people in different countries probably have different reactions
to this. For example, I'm fairly sure that job ad is illegal in the
United States.
Discriminating in employment on account of age against someone over the
age of 40 is flat-out illegal here unless there are "bona fide
occupational qualifications reasonably necessary to the normal operation
of the particular business" or unless the age limit is above 65 (or 60 for
aircraft pilots). The reason you cite is explicitly (in case law) not a
bona fide occupational qualification; the bar for that is relatively high
and limited to such things as an actor for a young part in a movie or
public safety reasons related to age. Were this job advertisement
published in the United States and someone over the age of forty turned
down because of the age restriction, they could sue and would probably
win, quite possibly including punative damages.
I'm not a lawyer, but I have had to take introductory legal training in
exactly this topic as part of mandated harassment training for staff in
supervisory positions, and this was discussed explicitly, at length, and
was a topic of exam questions.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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