If an employee wants to work beyond his (or her) default retirement date, he must put in a request to carry on, no more than one year and no less than six weeks before this date. If you agree to the request, nothing more need be done. If you do not agree, or wish to consider the matter further, you must:
- hold a meeting with the employee to discuss it;
- inform the employee of your decision as soon as is reasonably practicable (during which time they continue to be employed); and (if your decision is no)
- allow the employee time to appeal, which they must do as soon as is reasonably practicable.
If you neglect to follow these procedures, any employee, including employees over the 'default' retirement age of 65 (or an earlier retirement age if it can be justified), can bring a case of unfair dismissal against you, although they would still have to use the statutory grievance procedure first.
You may be faced with an employee (or employees) who puts in a claim anyway, in anticipation of a favourable settlement to the 'Heyday' case (see question one), in which case, take legal advice, just in case. Providing you follow the correct retirement procedures, you do not need to follow the statutory disciplinary procedure at this stage, but you might want to assemble some evidence for retirement, just in case.
