The controversial Default Retirement Age (DRA) will be scrapped from October 2011.
As the rules currently stand, employers are free to sack workers when they reach the age of 65 – for no other reason than their age. They are not required to provide any redundancy payment.
If the government’s proposals are accepted, employers will no longer have this power.
Under the current rules, employers must give workers six months’ notice if they intend to sack them under the DRA. This means that employers will not be able to give notices after 6 April 2011.
There have already been reports of employers rushing to sack workers aged 65 and over, in an effort to beat the abolition.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) criticised the move, claiming it leaves employers with “many unresolved problems.”
But campaigners and unions have reacted positively, having long pressured the government to scrap what they say are discriminatory rules.
