The authors find little evidence of injury or productivity problems associated with employing older workers. Even if age by itself is not predictive of injury or productivity problems, vulnerabilities do in fact increase with age. It is debatable whether a higher standard of care should automatically be considered at age above 50, but failure to look for known, very common, vulnerabilities at any age could be regarded as negligent.
Evidence from:
HSE RR832 (2011)
An update of the literature on age and employment
According to the report, Age by itself is not a valid trigger for a higher standard of the duty of preventive care; breach of duty would be established by the normal standards.
