The supermarket chain said it would employ staff of all ages - from 16 to over 70 - reinforcing the fact that age does not play any part in its recruitment process.
This goes beyond new age discrimination legislation coming into effect on October 1. While the new regulations seek to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of age, they do not go so far as to stop employers asking candidates how old they are when applying for a job; nor do they scrap the mandatory retirement age.
Asda said the regulations should go further by making it illegal for employers to turn people down for a job on the grounds of their age and for them to force workers to retire at 65, the state pension age.
Asda people director David Smith said: 'We simply don't see the point in asking people for their age when it's completely irrelevant to our recruitment process. We take on the best personality for the job, regardless of when they were born. Our oldest recruit was over 80 when they joined us and they're living proof that age isn't a barrier at Asda.
'We also have thousands of colleagues working for us who are beyond the traditional retirement age of 65, and many of these are people who've had successful careers in other industries but been forced into retirement.'
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