Draft regulations on the abolition of the default retirement age have been published… but there’s a problem.

The Government has laid the draft regulations on the abolition of the default retirement age before Parliament. From 6 April 2011, subject to transitional provisions, it will be unlawful to dismiss someone on grounds of age unless there is an objective justification to do so. Full details of the change are here.

Now it is a simple case of Parliament approving the draft regulations.

Or is it?

A closer inspection of the draft regulations would appear to reveal a potentially serious problem. The manner in which the transitional provisions have been drafted means that employers will be precluded from retiring an employee who has already reached the age of 65 by the 6 April 2011 (unless it can be objectively justified.) This is because the transitional provisions only apply to employees whose 65th birthday falls between 6 April 2011 and 30 September 2011.

In other words, as currently drafted, it may only be possible to forcibly retire an employee who reaches the age of 65 between 6th April and 30th September 2011.

So, what happens now?

Well, it is possible that this is simply a drafting error. If that’s the case, the current position can still be rectified so that the criterion is simply that an employee can be retired once they have reached the relevant age limit by September 2011.

However, it is now a case of wait and see…