Commenting on the announcement by Patricia Hewitt on retirement age, TUC Deputy General Secretary Frances OíGrady said:
Unions oppose age discrimination and back the EU Directive that requires the UK Government to end age based retirement policies. But equally we do not want to see new rules used as a Trojan horse to promote íwork til youí drop policies, and the open-ended review will do nothing to dampen down workersí anxieties. New rules should extend choice, so that people have more say about when they can retire.
We are therefore unhappy with todayís announcement. We still do not have a clear date for ending age based retirement policies as the Directive requires. While we recognise there is a case for some transitional arrangements, the Government today has neither given business any certainty about when the UK will meet its EU obligations, nor given employees any assurance that there will be new rights that will extend retirement choice in practice.
The right to request to work past 65 is welcome in theory, but in practice we are concerned that employers will find it too easy to say no, and the UK workforce needs a guarantee that no employee will lose out on pension arrangements as a result of these changes.
Flexibility and security are key to retirement age, says TUC
Unions oppose age discrimination and back the EU Directive that requires the UK Government to end age based retirement policies
