Advice for employers on the abolition of default retirement age

Sept. 9, 2011 - PRLog -- Employers have been unable to issue staff with retirement notices since April 2011, due to the abolition of default retirement age. UK employment law specialists Peninsula explain how these retirement law changes affect employers.

Improvements in healthcare and life expectancy mean people can stay in work for longer. Employees can still take retirement whenever they want, but may stay in work for as long as possible due to financial concerns.
Age is a protected characteristic, just like race or gender. Dismissal on the grounds of age is therefore considered unfair, and could lead to an employment tribunal. So, employers must now prove there is a potentially fair reason to dismiss a member of staff apart from their age.

If there is objective justification (e.g. a health or age-related issue clearly affecting the employee's ability to do their job, or endangering themselves or someone else), there is fair cause for dismissal, and this applies to all staff regardless of age. However, if it's simply a case of declining capability or productivity, the employer must carefully and fairly monitor performance to support their dismissal.

To help businesses deal with the abolition of default retirement age (http://www.peninsula-uk.com/business-services/employment-...), Peninsula is offering a range of services. Employers and HR managers can receive employment law training (http://www.peninsula-uk.com/business-services/training) on fairly retiring employees, while specialist advice and guidance is available at any time through the 24 hour hotline or website.

For employment law advice regarding retirement or age equality in the workplace, call our team of specialist advisors for free on 0800 328 9348 or visit the Peninsula website.

If you are a member of the media and need any further assistance, would like to discuss case studies for a particular feature, or be added to our media contact list, feel free to contact Sammual-James McLoughlin, head of media, press and public relations at Peninsula, on 0161 827 8511 or sammualjamesmcloughlin@gmail.com.

Website: http://www.peninsula-uk.com/

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Peninsula is the leading provider of employment law and health and safety services in the UK. Established since 1983, we have around 25,000 businesses who have already integrated Peninsula to work as part of their HR and Health and Safety departments.
Headquartered in Manchester, Peninsula employs 900 people across the UK and Ireland.
Our sheer size ensures that we can attract, and retain, the very best people from the HR, Health and Safety and Legal Services industries to come and work for Peninsula. Our financial strength allows us to offer the services and skill of our specialist people to work for our clients at an absolute fraction of the real cost.