No luck over challenge for UK retirement age

It has recently been announced that a law that enables employers in the UK to make employees retire at the age of sixty five is to be upheld, at least for the near future. The decision was made by the High Court, and means that workers in the UK may be forced to retire at that age whether they want to or not, and without any sort of payout from the company.

It has been reported, however, that the judge dealing with case said that there was an argument for the compulsory retirement age in the UK to rise.

The decision from the High Court is said to have been welcomed by a number of employers, as it means that the variety of lawsuits filed by employees that were forced to retire are now likely to fail.

The rules have not been challenged by the age charities, Help the Aged and Age Concern, which were campaigning for the retirement age to be increased, and the reason for them charities not appealing is that they expect that there will be a change in regulations in the near future anyway.

A review of the compulsory retirement age was scheduled to be carried out in 2011 by the government but it has now been announced that this is to be moved forward to next year. Age charities have said that this will most likely bring about a change in regulations.

At present employees can ask their employer to allow them to work past the age of sixty five, but the employer is well within their rights to refuse this request without an reason or payout to the employee.

The judge in the case said that if the government had not brought its review forward he would have considered a different outcome. He said: “The position might have been different if the government had not announced its timely review.”

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