Forties People

Proposed new employment legislation will make it illegal for employers to discriminate against staff in mature aged jobs on the grounds of their caste.

Ministers have previously claimed that discriminating against someone's caste - their historic and social standing in Hindu and Sikh communities - is not a problem in the UK.

But peers have accepted a possible amendment to the Equality Bill which would make it illegal to show prejudice against the caste of people in mature aged jobs, reports BBC News.

And Baroness Thornton has warned that evidence of this kind of discrimination may exist.

She said that more research will be carried out regarding the issue, saying: "We now think that evidence may exist, which is why we have now commissioned the research."

According to a recent study from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, changes to employment law often go unnoticed by small firms.

Some 25 per cent of small business owners admitted in the survey that they do not keep up to date with changes to this type of legislation.

Posted by Mary King