The Default Retirement Age (DRA) will be removed this year with interim measures between April and October. The government promised guidance in early 2011. The CBI is urging the government to delay removal of the DRA until proper guidance is issued.
Shoud we be worried?
The position we are in is a difficult one as HR professionals. Conversations related to succession planning and employees intentions on retirement might lead to claims for age discrimination, should they be handled badly by managers.
Employers will probably have to resort to the performance route rather than try to provide objective justifisation for a retirement age in many occupations in the face of no guidance.
Poor performance, particularly in more manual occupations will become onerous and this does not provide a very dignified way of dealing with older employees who may have been very loyal employees over a number of years.
Will this see a larger number of employment tribunal claims for age discrimination? We will have to wait and see, what we do know is that HR professionals will want to make sure managers handle these situations carefully.
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