Retirement claims to remain on hold until Heyday decision

A decision in the Court of Appeal has confirmed that forced retirement claims at Employment will continue to be put on hold, pending the outcome of the Heyday legal challenge.  

In Johns v. Solent, Johns had been forced to retire by her employer in March 2007. She challenged the decision and won the right for her case to be put on hold until the law is clarified. Her employer brought the case to the Court of Appeal to reverse the decision, but has lost.  

This means employees with similar cases will continue to have their Employment Tribunal cases put on hold pending the outcome of the Heyday case. If Heyday wins, employees forced to retire will be able to claim compensation for age discrimination and unfair dismissal.

Heyday, an arm of Age Concern, is claiming that the UK Government was in breach of the European Union’s Equal Treatment Directive by imposing a mandatory retirement age of 65.  It is also arguing that the Government has improperly implemented the EU directive, upon which the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 were based.

The challenge at the High Court was referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), where there will now be a hearing on 2 July. The ECJ is expected to publish its judgement before  the end of the year.