Call for default retirement age to stay

The Forum of Private Business is calling for the default retirement age to be retained at 65 to protect small firms. It proposes that if the Government is successful in its proposed abolition of this default retirement age, businesses would be forced to keep on employees over the age of 65 indefinitely, threatening the future of SMEs and leading to a raft of painful and costly legal disputes. 

FPB chief executive Phil Orford said: “I don’t think anyone would dispute the valuable contribution older workers make to the economy. At the moment there is nothing to stop anyone from working beyond 65, providing it suits both parties. The current law works perfectly well, so why tamper with it?

“By scrapping the default retirement age, all the government will do is take yet more control away from business owners, add even more complexity to workplace law, and open to door to costly and painful employment tribunal cases.

 “In the absence of a default retirement age, the only viable option available to an employer is a capability dismissal based on the declining competence of the worker. We believe this would be an undignified and humiliating end to a career for most staff.”

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