Can employers enforce a compulsory retirement age?

An employment tribunal recently ruled that asking older workers when they plan to retire can amount to age discrimination.

Can employers enforce a compulsory retirement age?

Dealing With An Ageing Workforce

A survey of more than 600 workers aged 50+ showed that 44% had experienced age discrimination at work.

Dealing With An Ageing Workforce

NZ Discrimination Survey

A survey of 1700 employees by Trade Me Jobs found that 45% of New Zealand employees think that there is discrimination in their workplace and claim to have seen some form of prejudice in the last year.

NZ Discrimination Survey

The Grey Economy: The HR Benefits Of Hiring Older Workers

Many employers are still reluctant to hire people in their sixties, despite the fact that older workers can confer a wide array of benefits to a given workforce.

The Grey Economy: The HR Benefits Of Hiring Older Workers

Managing age-diversity in the workplace

Dealing With An Ageing Workforce

Managing age-diversity in the workplace

UK - Age Regulations

This is a very difficult area of the law for employers. On the one hand employers do not want to be accused of age discrimination, but on the other hand they have to act in the best interests of the business, even when this means replacing older workers with a younger, fresher work force. However, before rushing into any decisions, employers must consider all the options available to them as any rash decisions could cause more harm than good.

The ticking time bomb of older workers

UK - Equality Report

The first triennial report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published in October 2010 concludes that while Britain has made good progress in addressing inequalities and tolerating diversity, significant barriers to a fairer society remain.

How fair is Britain? gives insight into opportunities and outcomes for people in Britain according to age, gender, disability, ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation and transgender status. It considers fundamental areas such as life expectancy, health, education and employment as well as security, support and power.

Equality Report

UK - Abolishing Default Retirement Age

Earlier this month, the charity Age UK welcomed the Government's decision to consult on abolishing the default retirement age (DRA) from October 2011, describing it as a 'huge victory' for older workers and a 'landmark' for UK society. The charity
argues that the economy, public finances and employers will all benefit from the proposed change. Age UK estimates that in 2009 about 100,000 workers over the age of 65 were forced to retire with employers using this mechanism as a short cut to shedding jobs.

Abolishing Default Retirement Age

USA - Understanding Generational Differences In The Workplace

Organizations that only consider age when addressing generational divisions in the workforce risk losing knowledge to retirements and higher staff turnover.


Understanding Generational Differences In The Workplace

EU - Recruiting Older Workers

A study by Allianz shows that in 2010 people between 60 and 65 will outnumber those between 15 and 20 in the European Union. 28.8 million EU residents are aged 60-65 compared with 28.6 million between the ages of 15 and 20.

This year, for the first time ever, the ongoing demographic change will affect the job market as there will be 200,000 more people approaching or entering retirement than the number of school-leavers.

Recruiting Older Employees

UK - Dealing With An Ageing Workforce

A recent report shows that just a half of employing organisations have a formal pro-age recruitment policy. It also shows that many employers are nervous of discussing age issues with workers approaching retirement. But many organizations are willing to make adjustments to the workplace in order to help retain employees when the issue is raised informally.

Dealing With An Ageing Workforce

USA - Older Workers Feel Shut Out

A study by Age Lessons, a Chicago-based intergenerational consulting firm, has identified workplace '3 Rs' that are keeping older workers up at night:

* fear of redundancy - layoffs or firings
* relevance - keeping skills current, and
* resentment from younger colleagues

Older Workers Feel Shut Out

Global - UN Youth Report

While today's youth are the best educated generation in history, they face a number of obstacles in an increasingly globalized world - foremost among them finding decent work - which affect their transition to adulthood, according to a new United Nations report released today.

Finding Decent Work An Obstacle For Today's Youth

USA - New Hampshire’s Aging Workforce

New England’s aging workforce could stall economic development and job growth in the future, according to a report prepared by Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies. The report was released today as part of The New England Council’s Older Worker Initiative. The numbers are significant in New Hampshire, which the report indicates has a larger and more rapidly growing share of the older population.

The New England Council Releases Studies on New Hampshire’s Aging Workforce

UK - Age and City Law Firms

Recent research considers the impact on senior and managing partners in leading UK law firms of the Age Discrimination Act which came into force on October 1, 2006.

Age and City Law Firms

UK - Recruiting Older Employees

A new report from Taleo Research and The Age and Employment Network (TAEN), urges UK companies to address the looming skills shortage and capitalize on the ageing workforce by changing their approach to recruitment.

Recruiting Older Employees

UK - Age Discrimination

A new report in the journal Hazards indicates that over one-third of UK workers believe they will be unable to do their current job by the time they are sixty. In the last six years the UK has slipped from first to sixth in the European league table in this respect. The report argues that employers should stop using bogus health and safety excuses to get rid of older staff or avoid recruiting from this age group. Instead they should make more effort to keep the ageing UK population in work and off benefits.

One third of UK workers fear they will be unfit for work by 60