You must have been asleep for the whole of 2009, if you escaped hearing about the Heyday case! Employers across Britain breathed a temporary sigh of relief when the High Court ruled that employees have no automatic right to work beyond the age of 65. The High Court upheld the law allowing UK employers to force employees to retire at, or after the age of 65 even if the employee does not want to.
The Governments “Building a society for all ages” paper was published in the summer of 2009, and the Government is now consulting on the reasons industry uses mandatory retirement ages; the impact of increasing or removing the default retirement age; and how the cost of this removal or increase could be mitigated and the benefits flowing from it. The Consultation closes in February 2010. Watch this space!
