New law due 2006....
http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/equality/age.htm
EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY: AGE DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING
On 14 December 2004, Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, and Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, announced how legislation outlawing age discrimination in the workplace would approach employers' mandatory retirement ages.
Following extensive consultation last year, the Government has concluded that legislation should:
set a default retirement age of 65, but also create a right for employees to request working beyond a compulsory retirement age, which employers will have a duty to consider;
ensure close monitoring of the retirement age provisions so that evidence is available for a formal review of age discrimination five years from implementation;
allow employers to objectively justify earlier retirement ages if they can show it is appropriate and necessary.
Click here for the full text of the statement to Parliament.
Click here for the press statement.
Next steps
In 2005, the Department of Trade and Industry will be consulting on draft age legislation covering this and the remaining areas, as highlighted in last year's Age Matters consultation (see below).
The legislation is scheduled to come into force on 1 October 2006.
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The article continues and links to more documents including...
http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/emar/errs18.pdf
Which mentions that...
... legislation prevents people over 65 holding commercial pilots’ licences and all commercial pilots are subject to medicals every six months. International legislation prohibits international commercial flying by pilots over the age of 60.
and this one that has a brief response from BALPA....
http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/equality/ag...s_con_resp.pdf
[
BALPA (a professional association for UK airline pilots), noted its opposition to a default retirement age and felt that
a higher ‘normal retirement age’ would merely encounter the same problems and inconsistencies as a lower one.