Ned,
I think you might have the wrong end of the stick about this, the thread started about initial employment, age at employment and time of useful service to a company.
The issue you're referencing here is different from what I've heard. The current AFAP action is about termination due to age and insurance, or as I hear it, an inability to get anybody to insure a 75 year old pilot.
As you'd be aware it's a legal requirement for all AOC holders to have "Carriers Liability Insurance"
http://www.casa.gov.au/operations/st...lity-insurance.
From what I hear, nobody wants to, or will, insure a pilot of that age for an AOC operation. I also hear this is becoming a problem for other carriers as well due to pilots continuing to fly well past what's generally considered retirement age around the World.
Apparently, and I'm definitely not an expert on this, all the insurers here in Oz reinsure with overseas companies and it's there where the problem lies for insuring a pilot of that age on an AOC operation.
I'm guessing the actuaries from the insurance companies don't give a rat's ar*e about whether it's an Australian's right to work in whatever job they want until they drop off the perch but are more concerned about the probability of a big payout if an older pilot is involved in an operation that has an incident or accident.
So, the problem, disregard the CASA requirements regarding insurance(Commonwealth Civil Aviation (Carriers' Liability) Act 1959) and fly uninsured or terminate a pilot for whom you can't get insurance.
Both options, IMHO, are not something you'd want to do, unless you either want to be prosecuted, and probably lose your AOC, and therefore your method of keeping the wolf from the door and keeping your other people employed, and or, be bankrupted, if bad !!!!! were to happen with a 75 year old involved, and you're not insured or you have to tell someone that their time is up and get taken to court by the aggrieved pilot.
Not a choice I'd want to make nor something that many of us would want to risk.
As an older pilot, though not quite at retirement age yet, this is probably something that will affect more of us, unless there's either a change in either the Commonwealth Civil Aviation(Carrier's Liabilty) Act insurance requirement, not likely IMHO, or the insurers change their way of doing business, even less likely than a change in the CCA(CL)A.
I guess some will say, "Bad luck, you've got to keep him/her on the payroll at whatever cost" and others will take the attitude of "Retire and let other people have a go at a career in flying". Neither really are real World solutions to the problem.
Seaeagle109