EEF, the manufacturers' organisation, has given a strong welcome to today’s announcement that the default retirement age is to be set at sixty five and reviewed after five years when the EU Directive on Age Discrimination is introduced in October 2006.
EEF recently published a survey together with Aon Consulting showing two thirds of manufacturers wanted a standard retirement age of 65 to be set. The survey also showed that, contrary to popular belief, many manufacturing companies are now employing some older workers. One in 4 companies already have some full-time employees over their company’s normal retirement age, which in the vast majority of cases was 65, and nearly a third of them had some part-time employees over 65.
Commenting on the announcement, EEF Deputy Director of Employment Policy, David Yeandle, said:
"This is a welcome decision which will help safeguard the competitive position of UK industry and enable manufacturers to plan their workforce requirements with a far greater degree of certainty."
"When it comes to the review of whether to maintain retirement ages, the government must take into account what our European competitors are doing and must not damage UK industry’s competitiveness."