The Supreme Court of Canada has recently ruled that partners can
be forced to retire at 65. Elderly employees, however, need not
resign themselves to early bird specials just yet. Indeed, there
are a growing number of Canadian employees working beyond 65; proof
positive that the wrinkled ceiling is in decay.
The outdated notion of mandatory retirement hails from late
19th century Germany, when that country became the first
nation to adopt an old-age social insurance program designed by
Germany's Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, for "those who
are disabled from work by age and invalidity [and] have a
well-grounded claim to care from the state." Despite his
right-wing credentials, Bismarck was labelled a socialist for
introducing such a program. His retort in the Reichstag debates of
the time was, "Call it socialism or whatever you like. It is
the same to me."
