'Employers have misconceptions about older workers'

Published on 9 Aug 2010 under category: legal

Employers' fears about the abolition of the default retirement age (DRA) are misguided, claims one organisation.
The Department for Business, Skills and Innovation this week announced the scrapping of the DRA.
It will come into effect next year, following a six month period of transition to enable employers to accommodate expected changes to their workforce.
Helen Barnes, principal research fellow at the Institute of Employment Studies, said that many organisations had misconceptions about older workers.
"Employers sort of think that if people don't go at 65, they're not going to go ever, which is not what people do – they tend to work an extra couple of years."
She added that the likelihood of workers insisting they were capable of performing certain jobs despite their age was limited.
"If people aren't up to the job, unless there's some very dire situation where financially they've backed themselves into a corner, most people are going to leave themselves anyway.
"I think it's much more self-limiting as a problem than is sometimes presumed."
However, critics of the plans to get rid of the DRA have said workers could claim that under-performance is down to age discrimination rather than ability.

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