Abolition of default retirement age

Jayne
My company is in the process of retiring all members of staff who wil be 65 or over from the 30th September '11
I have been approached by a member of my team who had an extension until 4/10/11 but has subsequently had a letter inFebruary '11 stating they were bringing it forward to 30/09/11 but advising him he still has the right to request to extend his employment further.
Given what you have said above i.e That the 5/04/11 was the last date you could give notice of dismissal on the grounds of retirement can you give me some advice ass to whether this employee can be still be dismissed on the grounds of retirement or should be under the grounds of capability.
At the moment there are no concerns under the issue of capability & I wish to retain the employee if at all possible?
Thankyou for your assistance
Dave

Jayn,

Please could you provide some clarification?

I have certain employees that are already working beyond their retirement age (indeed one of them is 73 years old this year). I have previously sent out notification of retirement and they have elected to retire on a particular date or indefinitely, which has been reviewed bi-annually in case there is a change in circumstancesregarding either party.

I just wanted to know whether the dates that have been elected by the employee prior to the new legislation will be still be applicable. Obviously, the previous DRA procedure would still be followed correctly and the individual would still be given the right to stay on, if it suited both parties.

Thank you for your assistance.

Amanda

That hits home for me Donna, because of my late uncle...

My uncle was an HGV mechanic, and he would have lived beneath the cab of a truck if he could, and after my Aunt (his wife) was killed in a road accident in his early 50's it was the camaraderie of the garage that kept him going.

I will always be grateful to the company he worked for, who couldn't do enough for him, and kept him at work after his retirement was due, gradually reducing the hours and the work.

He died a few years ago in his 80's and ALL his bosses (6 in total, including the company director) were at his funeral, not many companies that you can say that about

Thanks Jayn. We had spoken to him six months ago and agreed for him to remain for another year on part time hours (he only works three days a week). His manager spoke to him on Monday informing him that we will not be extending his employment beyond the 30th September on retirement grounds. He has agreed to this verbally, although he has suggested that he would like to continue if possible. The issue is not really performance, more capability. He is a HGV Mechanic and therefore finding it increasingly difficult to lift, bend etc. He is already on light duties but even this is becoming an issue.

Donna. 5th April (today) was the last day that you could issue an employee with notice under the retirement procedures so you can no longer use retirement as a reason for dismissal.
I would suggest that you need to discuss your concerns with him and see if he is thinking he will go soon. However if he does not see the problem then you may need to go down a performance route in order to tackle the issues under a correct procedure. If he is not part time then you may consider suggesting he goes part time as a way of keeping him in the job if that is what he wishes.
Basically you have to now deal with this issue just as you would for a 32 year old.

We have an employee who is now 72 years old. He signed a a letter requesting to carry on working indefinitely last June but he is finding it increasing difficult to carry out his duties and we therefore wish to "retire" him in October. Does this still fall within the DRA legislation?

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Hi Hilary

Many thanks for your query. In line with the Fixed Term Workers Regulations those employees should be treated in the same way as permanent employees and in line with the legislation changes. As such you should continue to manage the fixed term workers generally in the same way in that you can terminate a fixed term contract in line with the policy, providing as previously it is a genuine end to contract and you are abiding by the Fixed Term Workers Regulations.

Many thanks, Heidi

How will the changes to legislation affect workers over 65 on fixed term contracts?