Enginefireleft,
Pardon my ignorance here... as I don't spend alot of time on this forum and cannot be bothered to read 100 pages of bickering. Just interested in the issue.
Would it not be chaos to allow people to retire as pilots at any age THEY wish? There are obvious problems with this? Or is this just about establishing a higher age limit?
Unless you are an Air Canada pilot, or someone else in Canada directly effected by this issue there is no need to apologize for not knowing. If you are effected then I encourage you to get up to speed as quickly as possible.
In answer to your first question, no, it would not be chaos to allow pilots to retire at any age they wish. There is a caveat that goes along with that though that dictates the pilot must be capable of doing their job both from a physical health and competency aspect. Pilots the world over work beyond age 60, and it is only creating chaos at Air Canada because the company, union and many of the pilots are making it that way.
The problems you allude to in your second question relate only to the health and competency issue as a pilot grows older. Many people at Air Canada would have you believe there are unknown and unacceptable risks with allowing pilots to fly over the age of 60. That argument might have a little bit of credibility if not for the fact everybody else in the world goes to 65 and it hasn't been a problem. You see, we at Air Canada in both the management and pilot side think that if Air Canada doesn't do it, or the idea didn't originate from Air Canada then it must be bad.
The CHRT is only concerned with the human rights aspect of this, and they will not by themselves put in place an upper limit on pilot age. It is up to the operator to make the case for an upper limit but so far Air Canada has completely failed to do so because they are arguing for age 60, and that is just not supportable or realistic today. Eventually they will wise up to what is supportable, but so far they show no indication of thinking that far.
For your third question, no, this isn't just about establishing a higher age limit. For the people challenging the age 60 rule it is about not being forced to retire against their will. To them it is an age discriminatory practice to be told to leave their job at the arbitrary age of 60. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal agrees, so does every province in Canada and soon the Federal Government as well. Air Canada and ACPA maintain it is their right as a group to discriminate against an individual as long as it is voted on by a simple majority. That kind of intractable thinking is what's causing the chaos now because it is in direct conflict with contemporary Canadian standards and law. We are caught up in the minutia of a single case spending very large amounts of money defending a practice that has been rendered obsolete and illegal in all but one remaining (and disappearing) bastion in Canada. In doing so Air Canada and ACPA pilots are failing to see the overall reality.