Age discrimination more widespread than sexism in the City Age discrimination is now seen as a more widespread problem in the City than sex discrimination, a survey of more than 1,600 finance sector workers has found. While more than one-third of City employees said their employer was "very committed" to gender diversity, less than a quarter felt the company was similarly committed to fighting age discrimination. The research also confirmed that problems over discrimination and lack of commitment to diversity were most likely to arise in areas such as trading and sales rather than within the middle or back office functions. "The City is getting far better at supporting and developing female staff," said Mark Cameron, chief operating officer at Astbury Marsden, a financial services recruiter, which carried out the survey. He added: "The huge effort that London's financial services sector has made to broaden its workforce is clearly reflected in positive feedback we have had from employees." But while sex discrimination was on the decrease, negative attitudes towards co-workers on the basis of age and a lack of commitment to age diversity was seen as wider problem. We aren't saying that the negative consequences of age discrimination are bigger than other forms of discrimination, just that employees see it as more prevalent. They also see age diversity as something employers are not particularly focused on," Mr Cameron said. With people likely to have longer working lives in the coming years, this is an issue that is going to become increasingly important Mark Cameron, chief operating officer, Astbury Marsden The default retirement age, under which employers could force workers to retire at 65, was phased out in 2011. But Mr Cameron said that as with racial and gender diversity, it often took years for attitudes to change, and this seemed to be the case with age discrimination. "With people likely to have longer working lives in the coming years, this is an issue that is going to become increasingly important," he added. Despite the findings, sex discrimination cases are still occurring. This month Latifa Bouabdillah, an investment banker, claimed sexual discrimination and unfair dismissal against Commerzbank at London Central employment tribunal. She had resigned from Deutsche Bank in 2011 and sued for £1m, claiming that men were promoted ahead of her and received bonuses up to three times larger. She moved to Commerzbank but alleged she was sacked when her bosses found out about the Deutsche claim. Ms Bouabdillah told the tribunal she kept her Deutsche case secret because she feared Commerzbank would not offer her the £150,000-a-year role in its exotic vanilla funds team if it knew. Commerzbank said Ms Bouabdillah had made misleading statements on her application form and during interviews. The tribunal has yet to rule. Courts have faced many sex discrimination cases. Three years ago Oksana Denysenko won £1.5m damages from Credit Suisse after being made redundant when she returned from maternity leave. In 2010 Gill Switalski, a corporate lawyer, accepted a secret settlement worth millions after seeking a record £19m from F&C Asset Management over claims of sexist bullying. Nearly half of employers would like the default retirement age reinstated, according to a survey of 300 employers by Eversheds, the law firm. It said fewer than 3 per cent of organisations now had a policy of mandatory retirement for their employees, down from 69 per cent two years ago. More than half said repeal of the DRA has led to an increase in the number of employees staying on beyond age 65 or normal pension age. Prof Owen Warnock, Eversheds partner, said the end of the DRA had provided the impetus for change: 72 per cent of respondents said they would still be operating a mandatory retirement age if the law had not been changed. A third felt the abolition had had a negative impact, but another third said the change had resulted in improvements in retaining important skills and knowledge. "What's more, the much-feared increased in age-related retirement claims, has not, according to the survey respondents, in fact materialised," he said. Bank work is most stressful Bank workers suffer from higher workplace stress than is usual in other occupations, according to a research project led by Professor Cary Cooper of Lancaster University Management School, writes Brian Groom. It found that 63 per cent felt a lack of control over their work and 57 per cent were troubled by job insecurity, long hours and fault-finding bosses. This resulted in poorer psychological wellbeing and engagement than is typical in the general working population, the researchers said. The study, commissioned by the Bank Workers Charity, also found that 63 per cent slept poorly and many had financial worries. Among non-work pressures, 63 per cent were primary earners with significant care responsibilities, while 60 per cent had to commute more than an hour each morning. Levels of engagement and employee commitment were low, with only 37 per cent saying it was worthwhile to work hard for their organisation, compared with 54 per cent for the general working population. Emily Anderton, of the Work Foundation, which also took part in the research, said banks were ending up with "an increasingly unnerved, pressurised and, in many cases, disenchanted workforce - a large proportion of which sees no way out of the stressful situation." Prof Cooper said: "Perhaps the time is right to better equip managers to provide timely early stage support when their employees are mainly experiencing non-work difficulties. This is not arguing for an overly paternalistic approach but recognising that people have increasingly complex lives and that employers have a role to play, with business benefits, in broadening the scope of the support they provide.