Forced Retirement on the Rise as a Cheaper Option for Employers
March 11th, 2010
Default retirement age was first introduced in 2006 in
Age Concern and Help the Aged, two charities working with the elderly have rung alarm bells loud and clear for the government to hear. One area of concern is that many employers are using this forced retirement as a means to bypass the redundancy factor, thus saving on costs. Secondly, the number of people above sixty-five years of age who were forced to retire last year stands at a whopping 100,000 people.
These charities conducted a survey on nearly 1000 people, all aged between 60 and 70. The response showed that one in every four respondents knew someone who was forced to retire at or above the age of sixty-five because of the default retirement age option. They are now urging all political parties work towards doing away with this discriminatory legislation.
That this legislation is being used as a cover by employers to cut down the number of employees and saving on costs, is quite clear. Michelle Mitchell, the Director of the charities points out at the growing tendency in the society to discriminate against the aged, and says that Besides ageist polices such as this, there are others, like the age limit for insurance, that need to be resolved and also says that this age discrimination can be seen both in the government and private sector.
Employers can keep themselves up to date with HR and personnel developments to enhance the working capability of employers by taking accredited CIPD training such as the Certificate in HR Practice available from the experts at Workplace Law Training.
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