With effect from 6 April 2011, the current Default Retirement Age (DRA) of 65 years is being phased out over a transitional period running until 30 September 2011.
At present, employers are required to write to employees not more than 12 months, but not less than six months, before their 65th birthday informing them that they are approaching retirement and making them aware that they are allowed to request to work beyond their retirement date.
From 6 April 2011 employers will no longer be able to issue any notifications for compulsory retirement using this process.
The last day employees can be compulsorily retired using the current procedure is 30 September 2011. This means the last day to provide six months’ notice, as required by the current procedure is 30 March 2011.
Employers can still use the default retirement age procedure between 30 March and before 6 April 2011. If you do so, make sure you use the short notice provisions.
With effect from 6 April 2011, you will no longer be able to issue new notifications of retirement using the default retirement age. Between 6 April 2011 and 30 September 2011, you can only compulsorily retire employees who were notified of their retirement date prior to 6 April 2011 and whose retirement date is before 1 October 2011.
After 1 October 2011 there will no longer be a DRA. If an employer does want to use a retirement age this will have to be objectively justifiable. For example, BIS (Department for Business, Information and Skills) gives the examples of air traffic controllers and police officers as possible professions where having a retirement age could be justifiable. These are called ‘employer-justified retirement ages’ (EJRAs).
After 1 October 2011, there will therefore be no statutory procedures in place for retirement.
To have a compulsory retirement age an employer will be required to show that it has a ‘legitimate aim’ and that the retirement is a ‘proportionate means of achieving that aim’.
