Does 'Compulsory Early Retirement' Exist?

daveoc22

Am I imagining that I have heard of this in the past?.

I ask because my wife, who is coming up to 60, works for a local council where there is talk of them needing to lose 1000plus staff over the next 12 months.

Obviously redundancy will play a large part in the losses, but if there is such a thing as 'compulsory early retirement' then it could well effect my wife and many others within the council.

Has anyone experience of this and, if so, how does it compare to redundancy.

Thanks

zzzLazyDaisy

Compulsory early retirement no longer exists, as it amounts to unlawful age discrimination.

daveoc22

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

Compulsory early retirement no longer exists, as it amounts to unlawful age discrimination.

You know that is exactly what my wife said---thanks for clarifying.

Pricivius

The statutory default retirement age whereby employers could retire staff was removed last year or the year before. However, there are still some circumstances where compulsory early retirement may exist - put very simply, the employer must be able to justify it.

For example, fireman are retired at something in the region of 40, simply due to the physical nature of the job.

There has been recent case law on the issue of justification and guidance has been given to employers, although the case is still going through the system.

zzzLazyDaisy

This is an interesting point but as I understand it, is not relevant to OP's question.

If I understand the situation correctly, OP's wife works for the local council, and the issue is whether the local council can choose to go down the 'compulsory early retirement' route for certain older employees, instead of including them all in the redundancy process. In that scenario the old 'compulsory early retirement' option no longer exists.

snowcat53

In some cases of redundancy of course, early retirement benefits are given instead of a redundancy payout.

unsure

My brother works in local government and was recently facing the possibility of redundancy during a reorganisation. He was told that, as he had reached 55, it would be a compulsory early retirement with minimum stautory redundancy pay (in his case £12,000 for 25 years service). He went to his union who said there was nothing that could be done. Fortunately he got headhunted for another job before the issue reached a crux.
Don't know if that clarifies the matter at all or just makes it murkier!

oceancreek

Different local authorities have different policies. They may ask for volunteers first so they pay only retirement rather than redundancy. My understanding though is if you don,t volunteer and you are made compulsory redundant, that if you are over 55 you are also entitled to early payment of your local government pension too.

daveoc22

The last couple of replies are interesting---I suspect with the large number of staff they want to go they will start off by asking for volunteers to retire early,therefore opening up some jobs for staff they want to keep.

We're now just waiting forthe official announcement of budget and figures before my wife will have some sort of idea of what the future might hold for her.

Thanks for all the replies.

antonic

Civil Service *used* to retire you at 60, until that was ruled illegal as its age discrimination.

Now they ask for volunteers, and offer deals to people to go.