Retirement age bandwagon jumped upon

Personnel Today has been supporting a campaign to scrap the default retirement age (DRA) for several months now, in association with the Employers Forum on Age.

Now it seems a rival magazine is belatedly jumping on the bandwagon. A full three weeks after the ECJ’s decision in the so-called Heyday case, the CIPD’s membership magazine People Management has fallen off the fence and published an article (26 March issue) claiming the decision is the beginning of the end for the DRA.

No mention of the Employers Forum on Age in the article, who are spearheading the drive to ditch the DRA when the government reviews it in 2011.

The CIPD itself supports the scrapping of the default retirement age – it said as much after the Heyday ruling and in the pages of Personnel Today – so why is its membership mag only now coming out strongly on the issue?

One can only presume that the CIPD was waiting to see which way the ECJ lent before deciding its line, and therefore what coverage was afforded in the pages of PM.