However, the survey suggests that small employers are a lot less keen on the changes, with many worried about rising recruitment costs.

Under the new law which will come into force in October, it will be illegal to force workers to retire before age 65.

The Age Partnership Group surveyed 1,650 UK employers for the survey.

The group said that there was a clear disparity between the attitudes of large and small businesses to the age discrimination legislation.

Key findings include:

• 64% of large employers expect new age legislation to improve staff retention, compared to only 32% of small and medium size firms
• 56% of large employers predict that age legislation will increase choice in the labour market by providing more job applicants of different ages, compared to 32% of small and medium size firms
• 45% of large employers believe that age legislation will enable them to employ better workers, compared to 26% of small and medium size firms
• 42% of large employers agreed that age legislation would reduce recruitment costs, compared to 20% of small and medium size firms.

The new legislation requires employers to review all their employment practices to ensure they are based on skills and competencies, not age.

Alan Tyrrell, Federation of Small Businesses employment affairs chairman, said that small firms needed to ensure they were "up to speed" with the changes.

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.