Retirement not a fair reason for dismissal 





Compulsory or forced retirement is a dismissal and retirement is no longer a fair reason for dismissal. Employment contracts can contain an express contract term setting a contractual retirement age and employers can insist on retirement on reaching that age. This is not a dismissal because the retirement age is “agreed” as a term of the employment contract. However, there will be both direct and indirect age discrimination unless the retirement age can be justified as a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim (see Chapter 7: Discrimination, page 257).