The question often arises as to when employees should retire and
when employers can compel such employees to retire. There is no
statutory retirement age applicable to all employees. The
retirement age should be agreed between the parties. Where there is
no agreed retirement age, an employer may retire an employee who
has reached the retirement age that is the norm. Parties normally
agree in the employment contract on a retirement ages or often
agree that the retirement age will be as per a company policy or
the rules or a retirement fund.
This was the subject of the dispute in the recent case of
Hilary Truter v Carecross (Pty) Ltd C956/2013 (2015,
unreportable judgement) where the Applicant (employee) referred a
claim to the Labour Court where she sought to declare her dismissal
from the Respondent (employer) automatically unfair as she alleged
that she was discriminated against based on her age. The facts of
the case, briefly, were as follows: the employee was
