Retirement review brought forward

The Government has signalled that a planned review of default retirement ages will be brought forward by a year, and will now take place in 2010. Economic and demographic factors were cited as underlying the decision.

Employers may currently compel employees to retire at the age of 65 – a move seen in some quarters as contradictory to the spirit of the 2006 Equalities Act, which outlaws age-based discrimination.

The employers’ body the CBI expressed “disappointment” at the move, saying that imposing a default retirement age enables businesses to plan more effectively.

The Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development and the TUC, however, have come out in support of the planned review.

Separately, a legal case backed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission is to be heard this week by the Court of Appeal. It is being brought by solicitor Leslie Seldon, who claims to have been discriminated against on the grounds of age by his employer when he was compelled to retire against his will at the age of 65.

And another in a long line of legal challenges will next week be brought against the government by the charities Age Concern and Help the Aged – it having previously been determined by the European Court of Justice that retirement age is a matter for individual member states to decide.

Permalink