Default retirement age deadline

Age Cymru is celebrating a landmark in the battle against age discrimination in the workplace.

A deadline allowing employers to give staff six months notice that they were being forced to retire at 65 has expired in the early hours of this morning (6 April).

Age Cymru spokesman Graeme Francis explains:

"Today is a landmark day and a huge victory for hundreds of thousands of employees who just yesterday (April 5) could have been forced out of their jobs because of their age.

"Employers can no longer issue the six month notifications that they were bound by law to give out if they were forcibly retiring staff members at age 65.

"This is the last major step before the law that allows employers to force people to retire is completely removed from the statute books on 1 October.

The so-called Default Retirement Age came into being in October 2006 as part of legislation to outlaw age discrimination in the workplace.
 
Graeme Francis explains:

"The Default Retirement Age was always a controversial piece of legislation and in Age Cymru's opinion was a discriminatory and unfair law.

"Scrapping the Default Retirement Age will allow older people to pursue the opportunities that enable them to lead full and active lives and to contribute to our social and economic life."

He concludes:

"This is a victory for common sense and a significant milestone in the battle to rid society of age discrimination.
 
"The economy will also benefit from older workers' precious skills and experience and their increased buying power and public finances will receive a boost from more people paying taxes for longer."