Goodbye default retirement age

At long last this final piece of discriminatory legislation is being trashed. The CBI are still rabbiting on about the huge problems this will create for employers. Maybe they should talk to the many large and also smaller employers who have never used this to see just how they manage. I think it might be something to do with training their managers properly to conduct performance reviews. Sad also to see that the IOD appear to have changed their minds and also are objecting. Wonder how all those US companies manage having had to deal with this situation now for the past 20 years!

Default retirement age - has the penny finally dropped?

Well to 2010 at least. The new equality bill is creating problems as clearly kicking someone out of their job at 65 is to put it mildly discrimination based on age. Explaining the change in the timing of the review, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "Evidence suggests that allowing older people to continue working, unfettered by negative views about ageing, could be a big factor in the success of Britain's businesses and our future economic growth." Has the penny finally dropped? Well the TUC think so. The IOD think so. The Tories and Lib Dems think so. We are just left with the Taliban in the CBI still disapproving. They say its research had suggested that 81% of those who asked their employer to keep working had been allowed to do so. In which case why make such a fuss. Listening to their comments about the workplace, the workforce and management practices remind me of a living model of employment in the 1950's. Many legal cases are queuing up to be heard on this so abandoning this will also keep a great deal of money outside of lawyers pockets - which must be a good thing also!

IOD now supports abolition of the default state retirement age

Its not always attractive to keep looking at older posts and because of this I want to highlight a comment that has been posted today by Malcolm Small from the IOD. We had a conversation today about the IOD position and Malcolm informed me that he is now writing a new policy paper to be launched in the autumn on this and related issues. To save you the trouble I am reproducing his comment below. "Well, you don't need to persuade the IoD, at least, any more. I'm writing a policy paper for launch in the Autumn - the Roadmap for Retirement Reform 2009 - which will look positively at how older workers can add real value in business. The impossibility of funding a 30 year retirement from a 35 year working life means continued employment is a vital, legitimate, strategy for the "baby boom" generation. There's no doubt we will see a lot more elder workers, at all levels, in future - and elder entrepreneurs, too." Thank you to the IOD for having the courage to change their views so publically.