This article outlines the key features of the Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Bill 2025 and its implications for employers. If enacted, it will require major changes to policies, contracts, and procedures.
What you need to know
- Right to notify employer: When enacted the legislation will allow an existing employee to notify their employer if they do not consent to retire at the mandatory retirement age which is provided for in their contract. Instead, they can inform their employer that they wish to work until they reach the State Pension age which is currently 66.
- Notification requirements: Employees must provide written notice to their employer of their wish to work to the State Pension age no less than three months or no more than twelve months prior to the proposed contractual retirement age.
- Provision of a reasoned reply: An employer cannot enforce the contractual retirement age without providing a reasoned written reply. This response must be given within one month of notification, setting out the justification for relying on the retirement age in the employee’s contract.
- Objective and reasonable contractual retirement age: Employers must show that the earlier retirement age is objectively and reasonably justified by a legitimate aim and that the means of achieving it are both appropriate and necessary.
- Redress options: In the event that an employee wishes to dispute a forced retirement age he/she can lodge a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). The Bill sets out a number of criminal offences for employers that fail to comply .
- Protection from penalisation: An employer is not allowed to punish or threaten penalisation where an employee proposes to exercise or exercises their right to notify.
For further information on this or any other employment matter do not hesitate to contact Brendan Dillon or Donna Phelan on 01 2960666
