A worker at a Clare manufacturing plant who was forced to retire at 65 has been awarded €18,000 by the Labour Court.
SIPTU member Liam Murphy, who worked at the Deepark Fasteners manufacturing plant in Shannon, has been granted the award in relation to a claim he instigated following his forced retirement at 65 years of age.
The man, who had worked at the plant for over 45 years, had requested to continue working for one year beyond the age of 65 but had this request denied by the company.
He subsequently submitted a case alleging age discrimination under the Employment Equality Act to the Workplace Relations Commission, which was won on appeal at the Labour Court.
SIPTU Workers Rights Centre Advocate Rachel Hartery says it was “not unsurprising” that the Labour Court couldn’t find any evidence “that the employer had ever given serious consideration to developing a contemporary retirement policy that has regard to the Code of Practice on Longer Working and the evolution of employment equality legislation”.
The Labour Court also found in its decision that the company “did not engage in any meaningful way with Murphy’s request and had rather sought to hastily construct a retrospective type of objective justification for its decision to compel him to retire on his 65th birthday”.
Hartery has welcomed the decision, saying the man was “simply discarded by this employer after 45 years of loyal service, as was evidenced by the complete lack of consideration given to his requests to work on for one year beyond age 65”.
SIPTU Head of Legal Rights Unit, Rachael Ryan says “SIPTU has long campaigned for legislation to be introduced that will allow but not compel workers to remain in their employment until they reach the State pension age”.
She adds that “such legislation, properly drafted, would protect workers in the situation Liam Murphy found himself in”, and while a Bill to address the issue was introduced on April 1st of this year, “there appears to be no urgency on the matter”.