Free Glide

The decision of the Government to abolish the Default Retirement Age (DRA) from April 6, 2011, is good news for those, who had championed for the cause. However, it has received sharp criticism from young people in the UK.

Melissa Edmond, employment lawyer at law firm, Furley Page, called it an unfair decision, and opposed the view of the Age UK’s director Michelle Mitchell that the abolishing of forced retirement of employees is going to benefit everyone. There is already a scarcity of jobs in the country due to economic crisis, and this will increase the problem even more. She believes that increasing the retirement age would have been a much sensible decision than scrapping it.

The employers are going to encounter more problems with more chances, of rising claims of forcible dismissal and age discrimination, by the workers. As the senior people would not leave their jobs, they would not be able to recruit new and younger staff. Employers may also scrap all the costs on the employees to avoid taking responsibility for the older staff members.

This leaves the employers with two choices- either to welcome the Government decision or to continue following the old system. In the first case, the employers should scrap DRA, but complete those pending cases of retirement that were given before April 6, 2011, and where retirement is before October1, 2011. In the second case, they can follow DRA, but it will only land them in trouble for clear violation of law, and it would be hard to defend the stand.

For those involved in human resources management, training and development, CIPD courses are easily accessible and accredited training is provided by reputable companies such as Workplace Law – see CIPD Distance Learning – for information on their web-based training course accredited by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. The courses provide training to managers to successfully specify relevant safe working practices and improve upon management skills for personal procedures and to recognise employees as a valuable resource to help boost team performance for a more effective working practice.