Working Past Retirement Age

Today, I would like to talk to you about employees reaching their retirement age, and share important information about what you as an employer may and may not do.

According to Businesstech, a recent case dealing with the dismissal of an employee who reached retirement age, flickered attention by the courts as to whether an employee can be fairly dismissed based on their age, specifically relating to retirement.

Legal experts from Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr said that in this case, the Labour Appeal Court held that an employer can fairly terminate the services of an employee at any stage after the retirement age has been reached.

Does your employment contract state the retirement age for your employees? The dismissal of an employee based on age is not automatically unfair in circumstances where the employee has reached the agreed retirement age. Important to note that in this case, the Labour Appeal Court found that the law does not describe a timeframe within which the dismissal should take place and therefore this section affords the right to an employer to dismiss an employee based on age at any time after the employee has reached the retirement age.

If you do not want to terminate the relationship you can enter into a post-retirement agreement. If you would like more information or guidance, you are very welcome to contact me today.