martin f krafft <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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 ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/> -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]