Employers face a year of uncertainty over retirement and age regulations

Firms that require staff to retire at 65 face at least a year of uncertainty and could find themselves facing an age discrimination claim depending on the outcome of a case before the European Court of Justice. Britain has a default retirement age of 65 and so firms are currently entitled to require staff to retire at that age. As long as they follow the correct procedures there should be no major problem. However, the organisation Heyday, which campaigns on behalf of older people, believes this breaks European law and is challenging the national default retirement age in the European Court of Justice. Now the Employment Tribunal Service has decided that all claims of age discrimination relating to retirement should be put on hold until the European Court provides a ruling, possibly in the Spring of 2009.The decision creates a great deal of uncertainty for employers. If the Heyday challenge succeeds then employees who have been obliged to retire at 65 could have grounds to bring a claim of age discrimination. Employers may need to review their retirement policy and consider all the implications before requiring someone to retire because they have reached 65.  (Scroll to bottom of address below to find this article.)