Employer breached duty to notify intended retirement date
In Todd v Sanquhar Home Ltd an employment tribunal had to determine the level of compensation which was just and equitable in all the circumstances where an employer had failed to give an employee the correct notice of her intended retirement date and right to request to continue working under paragraph 2 of Schedule 6 to the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006.
Under the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, an employer must notify an employee in writing of the employee’s right to request not to retire on their intended date of retirement, and the date that the employer intends to retire the employee, at least six months, but not more than 12 months, before the intended date of retirement. A breach can lead to an award of up to 8 weeks’ pay.
The employer wrote to Mrs Todd, giving her notice that her employment would terminate by reason of retirement on a specified date and that she was entitled to request to continue to work beyond that date. She subsequently made a successful request to continue working past her retirement date, but then made a claim to the tribunal that the employer had breached the Age Regulations because she had been given only 12 weeks’ notice of her retirement date, rather than the minimum six months’ notice required.
The tribunal decided that as the employer had admitted its breach, it would be inappropriate to award no compensation. However, given that the breach was one “of timing only” and therefore “technical”, the tribunal decided to award only one week’s pay out of a potential maximum of eight.
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