Age rather than sex or race is the most common form of discrimination in the workplace, a MORI Social Research Institute survey has revealed .

Ageist hiring and firing policies means that British industry could be missing out on skills not easily found in the young according to the survey sponsors for Age Positive a Government campaign to stamp out ageism in the workplace.

The government has been dragged kicking and screaming into legislation, procrastination has been the watchword,

Don Steele, Association of Retired and Persons Over 50

Yet employers which consider older workers difficult to retrain are mistaken, the pressure group the Association of Retired and Persons Over 50 has said.

Potential employees as young as 30 are being turned down on the grounds of their age the association added.

Men suffer most

One on five workers told MORI that they had experienced discrimination at work, with 38% citing ageism as the cause.

Age discrimination during recruitment was more common in men, with 45% citing it compared with 27% of women.

The research also looked at the public's attitude towards older colleagues.

One third said resistance to change was a characteristic they associated with mature workers.

Of those who said they felt they have been discriminated against because of their age, 38% said this happened during the initial recruitment process.

Code failure

The Association of Retired and Persons Over 50 responding to the survey was critical of government policy towards preventing ageism among employers.

A government's voluntary code of practice for employers, introduced in 2000, had been a failure because of a lack of awareness.

"Nobody knows about the code and it has no teeth," Don Steele, the association's social policy director, told BBC News Online.

"The firms that behaved properly complied the others carried on as before."

However, the pressure group admitted that job adverts had lost ageist overtones.

Dragged kicking

Ageist hiring and firing policies are estimated by Age Concern to cost the UK economy �31bn a year.

"By getting rid of older workers firms are losing their history, experience and culture," Mr Steele said.

To combat ageism in the workplace, a European Union law guaranteeing older workers basic rights is to come into force in the UK in 2006.

It will apply in the rest of the EU in 2003.

"The government has been dragged kicking and screaming into legislation," Mr Steele said.

"Procrastination has been the watchword."

However, government refutes such criticism, Work and Pensions Secretary Andrew Smith said:

"All evidence shows that an age diverse workforce is more productive and efficient with age positive employers enjoying lower staff turnover rates, lower absenteeism and workers with higher levels of motivation and efficiency.''

Ageism costs

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) one third of the UK population will be aged over 50 by 2020.

Nearly a third of over 50s are currently not in a full-time job.

And, it seems, ageism in the workplace is not only suffered by the over 50s.

One law graduate was told that "solicitors offices do not take on trainees over 30", the Association of Retired and Persons Over 50 said.

The applicant was offered a post, only to have it withdrawn "after age had been considered".