On 1 January 2016 the Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act
2015 (2015 Act) was enacted. This Act has helped bring a degree of
clarity to the use of compulsory retirement ages in the
workplace.
Prior to the enactment of the 2015 Act the Employment Equality
Acts were at odds with a growing line of case law on the legality
of compulsory retirement ages. On its face it appeared that:
- it was not discriminatory under
statute on the grounds of age to fix different retirement ages;
and
- employers had an absolute right to
set retirement ages without the risk of a claim for age
discrimination.
However, the Irish legislation differed to Article 6 of the
European Council Directive 2000/78 EC, which required the use of a
retirement age in the workplace to be "objectively
justified by a legitimate aim". Despite the fact that the
Irish legislation did not refer to this requirement, we have seen
the Irish courts in recent years follow the approach taken by the
Courts
