28th January, 2011
All the latest stories from the world of work
The government has confirmed it will abolish the Default Retirement Age. The fixed retirement age will be phased out from April 2011 when employers will no longer able to issue compulsory retirement notices, and will be completely removed by 1st October 2011.
The government had faced calls from the CBI to delay the introduction to allow employers to make adjustments for the change. John Cridland, CBI director-general designate, said that the government needed to give greater clarity to employers on how to manage the performance of older workers.
But employment relations minister, Edward Davey, reaffirmed his belief that retirement based on age was no longer appropriate in today’s labour market: "Retirement should be a matter of choice rather than compulsion - people deserve the freedom to work for as long as they want and are able to do so.
"Older workers can play an incredibly important role in the workplace and it is high time we ended this outdated form of age discrimination," he added.
ACAS will be publishing guidance to employers on how to prepare for the change, and how to effectively manage performance within the current legal framework.
Most employers believe that current health and safety regulations do not overwhelm their business with ‘red tape’ according to a survey by the legal firm Norton Rose, and that the level of regulation is ‘about right’.
88 per cent of managers with responsibility for health and safety felt that they had enough freedom to implement sensible policies at work and 78 per cent agreed that current legislation had no negative impact on their business beyond taking up management time.
This survey follows Lord Young’s review for government on health and safety legislation, particularly with reference to the burden on small businesses. The government accepted Lord Young’s report and has already implemented some of the recommendations.
Caroline May, partner and head of the planning, environment and health and safety practice at Norton Rose, explained that although the issue is very much on the Government's "policy radar", it is not an area for concern in many businesses.
"What our study has shown is that the commercial impact on business of health and safety legislation is relatively minor," she said.
"It has become fashionable to decry the red tape burdens of health and safety, but a significant amount of respondents to our survey felt that it was a non-issue."
However, May argued that there was still scope for improvement suggested by the survey respondents including more bespoke application of some regulation to certain sectors, and more face-to-face interaction with the HSE.
The CIPD has forecast that UK unemployment will rise to 9 per cent (2.7 million people) in 2011. At best, the Institute anticipates a ‘jobs light’ recovery in 2011 with no substantial increase in jobs as the economy returns to growth.
The CIPD’s annual barometer economic forecast predicts that the number of people in work will fall by 200,000 this year, with public-sector employment falling by 120,000 and private-sector employment falling by 80,000. Unemployment is forecast to rise to 9 per cent, while average earnings are expected to increase by an annual (below inflation) rate of 2 per cent.
The disappointing growth figures for the last quarter of 2010, announced this month, have led the TUC to warn of further negative consequences for the labour market. General Secretary of the TUC, Brendan Barber, argued: "When this collapse works its way into the jobs market the impact will be severe.
"To implement drastic spending cuts when every sector, bar production, is in decline will hit business, send unemployment spiralling and make closing the deficit more difficult, not less."
