This week our question relates to the statutory default retirement age (DRA)
The DRA allowed employers to give either six or 12 months’ notice to employees approaching the age of 65 to retire.
Sadly, for employers, the DRA died a death in October 2011. There was a transitional period to 6 April 2012 which meant employers could still issue notices up to that point.
The client’s question was:
“We have an employee who is aged 70 who wants to retire but we want to keep her on part time. We’ve been reviewing it every six months as we are supposed to”.
Alarm bells, sirens and anything else that resembles a warning signal began ringing, metaphorically of course! Noooo was the thought going through my mind, the law changed many moons ago!
So back to the question or should I say the advice. I duly advised the client that the law had changed and therefore he ought to stop issuing notices as of now. The employee in question can no longer be compulsorily retired after the age of 65. Therefore, if the employee is agreeable to reducing her working hours that would be fine. It must however be the employee’s choice as to whether she will accept the company’s proposal to reduce her hours, otherwise there is a risk of age discrimination.
Employment law is ever changing and therefore making sure your processes/documents are compliant is key. This client had clearly not been aware that the law on default retirement age had been abolished in 2011. Although it is a necessary evil it has be done. In this particular case the client had luck on his side because this could have turned into an age discrimination claim for which the compensation is uncapped. That’s where Quest come in. Part of the service we provide would be to keep your contracts, policies and procedures up to date and compliant with current legislation. This ensures that you will never fall foul of the law!
Let us do the worrying about keeping up to date with employment law whilst you to run your business.
For further information regarding this or any of our HR outsourcing services please contact us today.
