Redundancy entitlement past retirement age

paulpud

A chap I worked with has been employed by the same company for all of his working life and reached retirement age a couple of years ago. To be honest should have called it a day because he really isn't up to the demands of the job anymore, but he wanted to carry on. He asked the boss if he could continue, to which he replied that he could as long as there was sufficient work for him, mainly because he hadn't the balls to tell him he didn't think he was up to it anymore.

At first he continued as normal, but he then started being laid off for a day or two here and there, which has gotten progressively worse, and he now hasn't done a day at work since the beginning of December last year.

In this situation, would he be entitled to ask for redundancy pay? I've read that if you are laid off for more than 4 weeks continually you can, but would that entitlement be affected by the fact he is 2 years past retirement age?

Scorpio33

By law, there is no "retirement age" now.

Basically, the employee can work on for as long as they want, as long as they are capable for the role. It is the employee that decides when they want to leave, in the same way as any other employee would resign.

If the employee is no longer capable for the role, you would have to go down the disciplinary route as you would with any other employee. Age is irrelevant.

The only think I would say is that practically, you could offer redundancy, and then if you were to employ someone else, give the role a different title with slightly different duties, as redundancy is only if the role is redundant (not the person).

The entitlement is the same regardless of age.

paulpud

If the boss had sat him down and explained the situation to him properly I think he would have accepted that he needed to retire but this didn't happen and it's now like he's been fobbed off and ignored. This guy has worked for the company for over 50 years and I think the way he has been treated is pathetic so if I were him I'd be asking for my redundancy as a bit of a final pay off.