Compulsory retirement at 65 'legitimate'
By politics.co.uk staff
British companies are within their rights in imposing a compulsory retirement age on their workers, Europe's top court has said.
The European court of justice said it was up to the UK courts to decide whether dismissing employees without redundancy payments at 65 or a mandatory retirement age was lawful.
But the policy definitely does not breach the European Union's own equal treatment rules, the court said.
"This kind of difference of treatment on grounds of age is justified if it is a proportionate means to achieve a legitimate social policy objective related to employment policy, the labour market or vocational training," it said in a statement.
Age Concern, whose membership organisation Heyday had launched the action at the ECJ, said it would now take its case to the high court in London.
