PENSIONS Minister Malcolm Wicks has blasted age discrimination during a visit to York - as the furore over the closure of York Pensions Centre comes to a head.

Mr Wicks claimed yesterday that age discrimination could be as cruel as racism or sexism for its victims, and said the Government was committed to outlawing it by 2006.

He praised a York training agency and a city estate agency for doing their bit to get older people back into work.

He also spoke of his regrets if controversial comments he made about the impending loss of more than 300 jobs at the Monks Cross pension centre caused any upset.

He said in the summer that York, with a fairly buoyant economy, could cope better with losing the jobs than other cities, with some redundant staff more likely to be able to find alternative work.

He said yesterday he stood by the comments, but recognised and appreciated difficulties being faced in the city, with job losses at Norwich Union and Terry's, adding: "I regret it if my comments led to any upset...Clearly if people are losing their jobs they will be upset."

He said Government efforts were continuing to find alternative civil service jobs for people facing redundancy, although he was not able to make any announcement on this matter.

His comments came just a day before the result of a nationwide strike ballot of 290,000 civil servants was due to be announced this afternoon.

Civil servants are expected to vote for a one-day strike on November 5 in protest at Government plans to cut more than 100,000 public sector jobs, including the 313 in York.

Mr Wicks, visiting Target Training in Piccadilly and Hunters Estate Agents in Colliergate, said both were demonstrating the way forward in the tackling the problem of age discrimination and helping to spread good practice to all businesses.

Target is a training agency that specialises in helping older people back into work, while Hunters has a policy of positively encouraging people of all ages to apply for jobs.

Updated: 08:18 Friday, October 22, 2004