Under previous employment law (prior to 1st October 2006), it was not possible to bring an unfair dismissal or redundancy claim if you had been dismissed after you had reached your employer’s retirement age or aged 65 if there was no retirement age. The age regulations abolish this situation, so you may now have an unfair dismissal or redundancy claim if you are dismissed past 65 or your employer’s retirement age.
In principle, retiring workers at a fixed age is a type of direct age discrimination that many people would regard as unfair. It is also often beneficial for workers to have choices about when to retire or whether to work less hours in the run-up to retirement. However, it is important also to recognise that many workers do not want any pressure to extend their working lives, especially where that could involve working more years than they expected to be able to afford to retire.
The provisions in the age regulations on retirement are very complicated, and if you think that you may have a claim you will need to consult your union representative if you have one and a legal expert. In addition, if you are not technically an ‘employee’ but still do paid work for someone else, perhaps as a freelancer or homeworker, it may be harder for an employer to ‘retire’ you at a fixed age without breaching the age regulations, so you should get some expert advice if you do not want to stop work.
If you are an employee and do not want to retire at a particular age, the first issue to consider is whether your employer has a normal retirement age or not. This will usually be specified in your contract of employment. If it is not, it is possible that your employer may have no normal retirement age, unless there is a well established age at which most or all workers retire. You should note that your retirement age is not necessarily the same age as that which you become entitled to draw a pension from your employer or from the state.
