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The default retirement age for all employees in England and Wales is 65. Employees have the right to request to work beyond 65, and employers have a duty to consider these requests.
However, the government has recently announced plans to scrap the default retirement age. What they are suggesting indicates that as from October 2011, employers will no longer be able to force their employees to retire at the current default retirement age of 65. Consequently if their plans are implemented, the statutory retirement process will also cease from that date. The only exception to this would be if an employer is able to objectively justify the requirement to retire an employee when they reach 65.
Therefore, if an employer wishes to retire an employee after 1st October 2011, and is unable to objectively justify retirement at 65, they will need to follow a procedure under the ordinary rules and will need to rely on the potentially fair reasons for dismissal (e.g. capability, conduct, redundancy, illegality or some other substantial reason).
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