The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has issued a ruling giving full support to the UK compulsory retirement age of 65. Many thousands of older workers, who wish to stay on in their jobs, had their hopes ruined when the ECJ gave its decision. The current law is based on the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006; the regulations permit employers to compel workers to retire at or after 65 and to refuse to recruit anyone over the age of 65.
The test case was brought by Age Concern who claimed the regulations were a breach of age discrimination laws, but the European judges said that “differences of treatment” were not necessarily discriminatory. The Equality and Human Rights Commission, which is a statutory body acting as an independent advocate for equality and human rights in Britain, said it would continue to put the case for the mandatory retirement age to be abolished.
