The Sunday Times ran a good piece last week on the Heyday retirement age challenge and its potential impact on older workers in the UK.
The article focused on Andrew Webster, a teacher at a West London school who was forced to retire at the age of 68, despite protests from staff and parents.
An estimated 25,000 people face default retirement in the UK every year, regardless of whether they want to continue working past the retirement age.
I was struck by comments from Neil Carberry, head of employment and pensions at the CBI, who said that getting rid of the mandatory retirement age would mean that the only way someone could be asked to leave was via a disciplinary process, which could mean "a very undignified end to some people's careers".
That's an interesting view and one I'm sure many in the HR community would have a view on.
The CBI wants the retirement age to move gradually up from 65 to 68, in line with the state pension age - and say it should remain mandatory.
In my view that would be delaying the inevitable. The government should commit now to ditching the retirement age in 2011, rather than just review it, giving employers more than two years to prepare.
So now's the time for HR professionals to show leadership and make the decision to ditch the retirement age. You can register your support for our campaign by signing our petition on the Number 10 website.
