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Age appropriate

The European Court of Justice continues to drive a coach and horses through the Age Discrimination Directive 2006. In another German case (Fuchs v Land Hessen ECJ August 2011) it ruled that in compelling state prosecutors to retire at 65, the Land concerned was not necessarily failing to comply.

The original decision, which had been made in the belief that after 65 prosecutors became less efficient, was not invalidated either by a subsequent decision to allow some to continue after 65 or by the further decision to raise the compulsory age to 67.

There was no need to justify statistically a contention that by having that compulsory retirement age a better age balance was achieved. The court may have been influenced by the fact that state prosecutors retire on 72 per cent of final salary.

It will be interesting to see how far the British courts will follow this line if individual British employers set out to have their own employer justified retirement age for their staff.

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