Employers want default retirement age reinstated
April 5, 2013 2 Comments
Depressingly – but not unsurprisingly – a recent survey conducted by law firm, Eversheds, reveals that nearly half of employers would like the default retirement age (DRA) reinstated.
The survey revealed that a third of employers felt the abolition of the DRA has had a negative or very negative impact on their organisation: two-thirds cited difficulties in succession planning whilst just under half reported that opportunities were being blocked for younger workers.
Other implications included increased costs of redundancies and/or providing benefits (37%), more management time having to be spent on performance management (29%), whilst just over a fifth reported an increase in ill-health absence.
Unfortunately, older workers aren’t going to go away so employers will just have to accept that these are now facts of working life.
One wonders if it was the way the survey was worded and the way the results are being reported, but didn’t the other half (who don’t want DRA reinstated) have anything positive to say about older workers?
Some good news media support would go some way to supporting the cause of older workers and overcoming negative perceptions amongst the unconverted
