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ECJ ruling upholding mandatory retirement age is fault of governments
March 5, 2009 4:46 PM
The European Court of Justice has ruled that the UK does not necessarily breach EU law by having a compulsory retirement age of 65 years. A case backed by Age Concern and which Liberal Democrats supported argued that such provisions breach an EU Directive of 2000 on equal treatment at work which seeks to outlaw age discrimination in the workplace across the EU.
London MEP Sarah Ludford, Liberal Democrat European justice & human rights spokeswoman said:
"Older workers are no less capable than younger workers, and mandatory retirement ages are simply discriminatory and unfair. Just like other staff, capable older workers should be able to choose whether to work beyond 65, irrespective of the state pension age. 3 out of 5 older workers do want to continue, full or part time."
"The Court had no choice but to rule this way because EU states including the UK drafted the EU law with a let-out allowing continued discrimination for 'legitimate' employment and social policy reasons. But the English High Court now gets the case back, and it could still rule that a compulsory retirement age is not legitimate."
"In any case, Gordon Brown should at least fulfil the government's commitment to a review of the mandatory retirement age. Age Concern makes the valid point that one in eight MPs would be out of a job immediately if the rule applied to them."
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