Many businesses and individuals will be familiar with the 'Heyday' case which has been working its way through the courts for the last couple of years.
This test case, championed by the charity Age Concern, effectively challenged the UK's default retirement age of 65, arguing that it was discriminatory on grounds of age.
The case finally found its way to the European Court of Justice in March of this year, where clarification was given on the purposive intent of the Equal Treatment Directive. The ECJ determined that whilst the Directive (implemented in the UK by way of the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006) prohibited discrimination on grounds of age and that a normal retirement age of 65 was therefore potentially discriminatory, such a measure was permissible so long as it could be "objectively and reasonably justified by legitimate aims, such as those related to employment policy, the labour market or vocational training".
The ECJ remitted the matter to the UK's High Court for a determination on whether the UK's default retirement age was justified or not.
Whilst Age Concern returned from Luxembourg buoyed by this ruling and confident that no objective or reasonable justification for a retirement age of 65 could be made out, the High Court has this week determined otherwise.
Specifically, Mr Justice Blake decided that the UK's default retirement age did comply with the EC Directive. However, he went on to comment that there was a compelling case for that age to rise and that "the position might have been different if the government had not announced its timely review". The government has announced its intention to undertake a review by 2010.
Follow us on Twitter
