Traditional ‘elderly crossing’ road sign puts employers off hiring over-50s, claims business champion
The traditional triangular road sign showing an elderly man and woman crossing the road is leading to ‘stereotypes’ and deters employees from hiring those over the age of 50, Ros Altmann has suggested.
Altmann, the government tsar for the elderly spoke out about the ‘discriminatory’ pictorial sign, the image for which was the winning entry in a children's competition held in 1981.
The sign previously came under fire in 2008 for claims by Age Concern it was ageist, but spokesman for the Department for Transport said that the sign was not intended to depict elderly people, but those who were frail.
However, Altmann will discuss the sign with Jo Swinson, the women and equalities minister, at an upcoming meeting, saying “Employers do not automatically assume it is worth training older people,” with the road signs helping to ‘colour stereotypes’.
A change in 2003 saw the words ‘elderly people’ removed from underneath the sign for being ageist.