Employer attitudes to retirement are relaxing

The number of employers with no fixed retirement age has increased from 14% to 24% in the two years since the implementation of legislation designed to tackle age discrimination, according to a survey by IRS Employment Review.

The poll of 97 employers, between them employing 541,000 employees, also finds that most have increased their retirement age to 65 to comply with the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations, despite a legal entitlement to retain a lower one if they can objectively justify it.

Meanwhile, eight out of 10 employers had been approached by staff with requests to work beyond the normal retirement age, and 93% of these had agreed to either some or all of them.

According to the survey, most of the employers already had good-practice procedures in place before the regulations were introduced, with half (49%) already meeting the requirements of the regulations and over a fifth (22%) going beyond the requirements.

Where changes were needed, these usually related to person specifications (68%) and job descriptions, recruitment policies and application forms (all 60%).

Just over a quarter (26%) said they did need to alter practices to ensure they were in keeping with the law.

While 44% of this group aimed simply to comply with the regulations, 24% said they wanted to exceed the requirements in some areas while 32% said they aimed to surpass the requirements in all respects.