Hi

Hope someone can help me?
My friend has been told today that as of January 2007 she will no longer be required to work and will be paid 6 months wages. The company in question has a normal retirement age of 60, she is 63 and a branch manager they have allowed(!) her to work for a further three years on a renewable contract, she has just had a review and her performance is deemed as excellent.

The company is going through a major restructure and there have been many redundancies. The surrounding branches are being closed and the manager from one of the closing branch has been told that she will replace my friend as of January 2007. The other manager is substantially younger and it has been said that a comparison of the two managers had been made and as my friend would work for possibly two years (there words…) until she was 65 it was felt that the younger person would be best retained.

The whole thing sits very uncomfortably with me – the company have said that they have allowed her at their discretion to continue working beyond their NRA and therefore the duty to consider procedure does not apply and that they are not discriminating her due to her age…..is this right? I understood that even if the retirement date had been agreed the procedure should still apply.

Hope this makes sense – can anyone help?
Melanie Gardner