Lack of clarity over future retirement rules could result in an escalation of discrimination-based tribunal claims once the default retirement age is scrapped next April, the CBI has warned.
The employers lobby group said that the coalition government’s failure to produce any guidance or draft regulations on what a new legislative framework would look like was causing “huge uncertainty” among employers who were concerned about the implications of having no replacement for the DRA.
Moreover, because the number of employment tribunal claims rose by 56% last year, nearly half of all employers were also worried about facing more age-related claims once the DRA was abolished, it added.
John Cridland, the CBI’s director general designate, said: “With the scrapping of the DRA in April, a legislative void is opening up. We need to modernise our employment law framework to ensure that it is fit for purpose. In the majority of cases, this will not be an issue, but in a minority, it will be a serious problem for all concerned.”
As a result, the government needed to “act fast” and should not introduce changes to the retirement framework until April 2012 when hopefully such issues had been resolved and employers would have had enough time to prepare, he added.
Its employment law review would act as a perfect opportunity to amend the current legislative framework in a number of areas and provide employers with guidance on how to operate in the absence of the DRA safety net, Cridland said.
