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SMEs in favour of no default retirement age
Added: 2010-01-20 11:10:24.0According to new research by the Federation of Small Business (FSB), two thirds of small businesses are in favour of removing the default retirement age. Currently, 85% of the FSB’s members do not use the default retirement age for their business and 76% believe that an employee should not be forced to retire and that it should be a mutual decision between employer and employee.
We’ve been keeping you up to date on the retirement age issue on the Cleardocs blog and this appears to be yet another damning blow to the controversial law on when people should retire. The FSB’s research follows an announcement last week by Deputy Labour Leader Harriet Harman of a “shake-up” in retirement law that could see an end to the default retirement age that is currently 65.
The FSB does however think that the government needs to introduce a law that allows businesses to retire any employees whose performance is being hampered by ill health; a view that is bound to be shared by many business owners.
John Wright, National Chairman at the Federation of Small Businesses, commented "Many small business owners have no intention of putting in place a blanket policy to retire their staff at 65 – they understand the valuable contribution and skills that older workers bring to the business. In a recent survey by the Federation of Small Businesses, 60 per cent of respondents employ staff over 50 years old and a quarter employ staff who are over 65, showing that small firms are flexible employers.
“Businesses need to be able to make decisions about their workforce without the threat of expensive tribunals from employees who are unable to work because of age-related issues. The ability to let someone go because of ill-health should be made sacrosanct for those employers."
A decision on the retirement age is expected in early 2010 but with the run up to the General election, the topic could be part of the various parties’ manifestos. As ever, we’ll keep you updated with any developments.
The content of this blog is not legal advice and should not be relied on as such, or used instead of seeking legal advice.
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