Mandatory retirement age and age discrimination

Abstract

This article considers the issues raised by the proposed abolition of the mandatory retirement age as a result of the Equal Treatment Directive, 2000/78/EC, and of proposed Age Discrimination in Employment Regulations. It argues that there are a number of distinctive retirement ages, namely, the contractual retirement age, the pensionable retirement age and the actual or normal retirement age. These may coincide or they may occur at different times, but it is only the contractual retirement age that is likely to be abolished by the Regulations. Their effect upon the retirement age will therefore be limited. As part of the research for this article a number of TUC affiliated trade unions were interviewed in order to gain an employee perspective of the issues surrounding the abolition of mandatory retirement ages.

Assessing the Capacity of Pension Institutions to Promote Distributive Justice: A “Liberal” Conceptual Framework

“…Recall that the broad end of liberal freedom is sovereignty, where individuals are able to pursue their conception of the good life, which may include work participation ( Table 3). This is reinforced by comparative cross-national survey evidence which suggests that a substantial minority of employees would prefer to continue working beyond the NRA [43]. But their capacity to do so may be substantially impaired by retirement policy, and in at least three ways.…”

“…In practice, social security and employment law across a range of national jurisdictions have converged, giving employers the right to retire their employees when they reach the NRA [43]. The conspicuous exception is the United States which, since 1986, has effectively prohibited mandatory retirement.…”

“…Sargeant [43] defines age discrimination as "the rejection of an older worker because of assumptions about the effect of age on the worker's ability to perform, regardless of whether there was any factual basis for the assumption" (p. 5). There is considerable evidence to suggest that the negative attitudes that give rise to age discrimination are widespread.…”

“…There is considerable evidence to suggest that the negative attitudes that give rise to age discrimination are widespread. One survey of senior executives in 500 companies sought to gauge the prevalence of prejudice against older workers by asking respondents to specify the age at which they would dismiss a job applicant as being "too old" to employ: more than one third regarded applicants aged 50 and over as being unsuitable for employment, while around two thirds expressed a reluctance to employ applicants who has reached the age of 60 [43].…”

The HR Management Perspective on the Elimination of Mandatory Retirement in Ontario

“…While trade unions strongly oppose age discrimination, there has not been o 4 much reported on their views about mandatory retirement. Sargeant (2004) suggests that this is likely the result of both limited resources, but more particularly because their members' interests have been elsewhere-there just is not all that much member pressure to tackle issues related to retirement ages or, indeed, age discrimination. Sargeant does point out that the issue is further complicated by the necessary distinction between contractual retirement age, pensionable retirement age and actual or normal retirement age.…”