People will be given the chance to work for longer in the UK after the government announced plans to scrap the fixed retirement age by October 2011.
As it stands, employers are able to force retirement upon staff at the age of 65 and not have to pay any financial compensation.
The default retirement age (DRA) would be start to be phased out from April 2011 and fully by October that year under the consultation proposals from the government.
It was argued by ministers the new plans would give people more choice as they lived longer, healthier lives.
“With more and more people wanting to extend their working lives we should not stop them” said said Employment Relations Minister Edward Davey, “just because they have reached a particular age”.
However, the Confederation of British Industry argued the speed of the anticipated change gave businesses very little time to prepare and the retirement age as it stood enabled employers to plan for the future.
“Scrapping the DRA will leave a vacuum”, said John Cridland, the CBI’s Deputy Director-General, “and raise a large number of complex legal and employment questions, which the government has not yet addressed”.
“This will create uncertainty among employers and staff, who do not know where they stand.
“For employers, these proposals could make workforce planning and providing some employment benefits, such as critical illness cover, next to impossible”.
Certain employers would still be able to enforce a compulsory redundancy if it was justified under the new government plans with police officers and air traffic controllers noted as examples.
