Employer groups have largely welcomed the phasing out of the default retirement age (DRA), which begins today (6 April). Organisations will no longer be able to give employees notice of retirement under DRA provisions and will need to objectively justify any compulsory retirement age still in place to avoid age discrimination claims. Retirements that were…

3M Co. (MMM), the maker of products including Scotch tape and Post-it Notes, agreed to pay as much as $12 million to settle an age discrimination lawsuit. Under the agreement, which is subject to approval by the Ramsey County District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota, 3M will resolve the claims of about 7,000 members of…

The ECJ rule that an Austrian law which mandated lower pay for younger civil servants was not proportionate and therefore not justified under the Framework Directive. Facts Mr Hütter worked as a public servant and was subject to the Austrian laws governing the grading of public servants – the “VBG”. Under the VBG, entitlements are…

Telling someone that they must stop work merely because they have reached a particular birthday is a blatant form of age discrimination. Laws prohibiting age discrimination came into force in 2006 and were this year incorporated, largely unchanged, in the new Equality Act. Age differs from other types of discrimination covered by the act, such…

Mr Dixon worked as a Gamekeeper for Croglin Estate Ltd (“Croglin”). He worked and lived at the Stanhope Moor estate. Gamekeeping was, in the words of Mr Dixon, “my whole life”. Croglin noticed a substantial drop in the annual numbers of grouse on the site, from 1,855 brace to 1,215 brace. This represented a drop…

They may feel they are in their prime with many years ahead of them. But people of 54 are at the start of their old age, according to the younger generation. And youth ends when people turn 32, say the under 25s. A survey of 2,200 people questioned as part of research by the Department…

Pioneering research from the University of Reading is being used to enhance the taste of hospital food to help prevent or treat malnutrition in older people. The project is supported by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal and funded by Research into Ageing, the medical research arm of Age UK. The research is using a taste central…

The government will press ahead with plans to raise the state pension age for women but ministers have promised to look at “transitional” arrangements. The coalition wants to raise the pension age for women from 60 to 65 by 2018 as a prelude to both female and male pension ages rising to 66 in 2020.…

Pension reform cannot be delayed any longer and the new Government says it is determined to reinvigorate pensions and retirement. The demographic time bomb is ticking as the first baby boomers reach their 65th birthdays in 2011 followed by millions more in the next 20 years or so. Government has had many years to prepare…

Viewing entries tagged Surgery The Care Services Minister, Paul Burstow, said: “Our population is ageing as more of us live longer – and there can be no place for age discrimination in the NHS. Eliminating inequalities in access to surgery is vital if we are to improve survival rates”.