Read it properly, northeastspray. It wasn't KLM who were insisting on them retiring at 56, it was VNV Dutch Alfa, the pilots union. One of the reasons being that it slows down the promotion of THEIR members. Howerver, come what may, they do not not lose their licences so than can fly for somebody else if they so choose.
Who's northEASTspray, maybe he's a distant relative of farWESTdriver? And about reading properly,......
Anyway, the pilots are of course employed by KLM, not VNV, so KLM has a retirement age of 56, negotiated into the CLA by VNV, disputed by a few individual pilots who went to trial, and they all lost, at least one of the cases went to the dutch supreme court, and the pilot lost again.
So what is to be learned from this? Well, it seems like the employers and the unions are free to negotiate any retirement age they like, of course within the laws and regulations of their respective nations. And I quite like the thought that the law and the EU Council Directive 2000/78/EC supports legally binding agreements, not individuals trying to make a deal for themselves at the cost of their colleagues.