We have an employee who reached 65 in August, and is still working with the company. It is her wish to work until her 66th birthday next August and then go part-time (2-3 days per week). What are our obligations in this situation? This is the first person in the company to reach retirement age so we have no retirement policy, or mention of retirement in contracts.

Posted in : First Tuesday Q&A ROI on 2 November 2011
A&L Goodbody
A&L Goodbody
Issues covered:

There is no statutory retirement age in Ireland, although the Employment Equality Acts, 1998-2008 (the EEA) permit employers to impose a contractual retirement age. In this case, as there is no contractual retirement age, strictly speaking, the employer has no right to oblige this employee to retire at any point, in particular, as the employer cannot argue that there is an implied contractual retirement age by virtue of custom and practice within the organisation. In any case, even if there had been a contractual retirement age of 65, allowing the employee to work beyond it would reduce the ability of the employer to rely on the provision. As such, in the normal course of business, it is to

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Back to Q&A's This article is correct at 02/09/2015
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The information in this article is provided as part of Legal-Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article.

A&L Goodbody
A&L Goodbody

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