Legal challenge to fixed retirement age is inevitable, claims campaign groups

The Government's decision to water down its commitment to combating age discrimination in the workplace by giving employers the right to retire staff at 65 will face a legal challenge, say campaigning groups*.

On 6 December 2004, the government announced it will legislate to set a default retirement age of 65 but give employees the right to request an extension, which employers will be entitled to reject for business reasons.