Age Rule

At present, the Co-op Group has an "age rule", whereby there is a maximum age above which the elected representative is barred from the committee or board. This limit is currently 70 for area committees, and lower than that for regional and Group boards. The purpose is to encourage a healthy turnover in the make-up of the committee, but there are a number of points to make about this:

To begin with, if a healthy democratic culture was in place there would be no need for the age rule. As new candidates put their name forward, the ranks of the committee would be refreshed, and if a member was re-elected time and time again, then they must be pretty popular with the membership. At present, however, many areas have no contested elections.

Secondly, as a method for encouraging turnover of committee members, the age rule is a little flawed. I am 25, so could happily sit and ossify on the committee for the next 45 years before falling foul. By contrast, a 70 year old who would like to stand for election, and provide some democratic competition to the current encumbents is barred from doing so.

But perhaps the final death-knell of the age rule will come when the new ageism laws come into place. These demand "objectively justified" reasons from the employer if employment is brought to end because of an age limit. Such reasons would be hard to find in the elected structures of Co-operative societies, because older people are objectively able to perform the roles of elected representatives.