ARTICLE
6 September 2016

"Start Preparing For Staff To Be Protected From Automatic Retirement"

O
Ogier

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Ogier provides legal advice on BVI, Cayman, Guernsey, Irish, Jersey and Luxembourg law. Our network of locations also includes Beijing, Hong Kong, London, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. Legal services for the corporate and financial sectors form the core of our business, principally in the areas of banking and finance, corporate, investment funds, dispute resolution, private equity and private wealth. We also have strong practices in the areas of employee benefits and incentives, employment law, regulatory, restructuring and corporate recovery and property. Our corporate administration business, Ogier Global, works closely with Ogier's partner-led legal teams to incorporate and administer a wide variety of vehicles, offering clients integrated legal and corporate administration services. We have the knowledge and expertise to handle the most demanding and complex transactions and provide expert, efficient and cost effective services to all our clients.
In two years time employees will be protected from being forced to retire when they reach pension age and the clock is ticking for employers to review their rules and policies to cope with the change.
Jersey Wealth Management

In two years' time, employees will be protected from being forced to retire when they reach pension age – and the clock is ticking for employers to review their rules and policies to cope with the change.

Ogier employment lawyer Daniel Read says that employers need to start thinking now about how to adapt now that the Discrimination Law has started to cover age-related complaints (as of today) and the two-year countdown to changes over retirement rules has begun.

The extra two years have been given to allow employers time to rewrite policies and review contracts in respect of retirement. At present, employees can be effectively forced to retire when they reach pension age without fear of unfair dismissal claims – from 1 September 2018, employers will have to justify the need for employees of any age to retire.

Daniel, who was promoted to senior associate in Ogier's mid-year promotions at the start of this month, says that employers who don't use the next two years to adapt to the changes could be liable to compensation claims and significant PR damage if they try to force out workers who do not want to retire.

He said: "The next two years will be an important time – if employers do not review and reconsider handbooks, policies and contracts, they could live to regret it.

"It might be that employees approaching pension age have to change duties for health and safety reasons, or because of employee performance, or because of career structuring or promotion opportunities for colleagues.

"Policies and handbooks need to be reviewed with this change in mind, along with the general anti-age discrimination provisions that have now come into force."

As of today, the Employment and Discrimination Tribunal will be able to make awards of up to £10,000 where complaints of age discrimination or discrimination–related harassment are upheld.

From an employment law point of view, because the hearings and judgments of the tribunal are public, companies also face negative PR and an impact on their reputation as employers and ability to recruit and retain staff if they are found to have discriminated against their staff.

In most cases, companies could be held liable for discriminatory acts by their employees – and in any case, where a complainant names both a manager/colleague and their employing company in their complaint, the tribunal will be able to split any financial award as it chooses between the cited employee and the employer.

The Ogier Employment Team's recommendations are to:

  • Amend (if required) employment handbooks, including policies on equal opportunities and harassment, setting out what constitutes acceptable behaviour and what does not.
  • Review employment contracts and any relevant policies to ensure they comply with the Law.
  • Provide training on equal opportunities and harassment. This may help managers to avoid inappropriate questions at interviews, or to recognise and deal with harassment at an early stage.
  • Set up clear procedures for staff to raise concerns and complaints, and for dealing with complaints. Ensure discriminatory behaviour by staff is not tolerated and is dealt with through proper disciplinary measures.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

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