Blogosphere reacts to the scrapping of the default retirement age

Dr Ros Altmann, the Director General of Saga, has managed to get the same article in both the Guardian and the Telegraph today. She is, of course, delighted that the default retirement age is to go. But, as usual, the really interesting bit is the replies that her article is attracting.

The arguments broadly fall into two categories.

On the one hand, by forcing people to retire before at a particular age, you make them stop working, producing and earning. So they end up contributing less in output to the economy and pay less taxes into the pot, meaning the country is less wealthy and the government doesn't have as much money to spend. Which creates more jobs for young and old alike.

On the other hand, increasing the retirement age will not cause the economy to grow (at least in the short to medium term) and will instead increase the supply of workers, driving down wages. The young will have less opportunity to get on the career ladder. And if older workers are at the top of their career income they are more expensive to employ and, if generally less efficient, this may reduce efficiency, competitiveness and the total number of jobs available.

In reality, the precise ramifications of scrapping the default retirement age are just too complex and subtle for any commentator to predict. But from an employment law perspective, the most immediate issue is likely to be how employers will treat a workforce which, as a general rule, may become less productive as employees reach old age. If an employee becomes less able over time but insists on staying put, what then? Most employment lawyers would agree that 'capability' is by far the most difficult 'fair reason' to rely on in dismissing an employee, as it carries an obligation to allow an employee to come up to scratch via support, training, redeployment and so on - all of which can take months. This can be hurtful to an employee and easy for another solicitor to challenge (usually pointing to the employee's most recent appraisal which, more often than not, will be glowing because the employer didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings). So will scrapping the default retirement age promote good industrial relations or become a source of conflict? We suspect this is one where time (and a hefty raft of case law) will tell...