A SIPTU member who worked at the Deepak Fasteners manufacturing plant in Shannon, County Clare, has been awarded €18,000 by the Labour Court in relation to a claim he instigated following his forced retirement at 65 years of age.
Liam Murphy, who had worked for his employer for over 45 years, requested to continue working for one year beyond age 65 but the company rejected his request. SIPTU, representing Mr. Murphy, submitted a case alleging age discrimination under the Employment Equality Acts to the Workplace Relations Commission, which was won on appeal at the Labour Court.
SIPTU Workers Rights Centre Advocate, Rachel Hartery, said: “It was not unsurprising that the Labour Court could find no evidence that the employer had ever given serious consideration to developing a contemporary retirement policy that has regard to the Code of Practice on Longer Working and the evolution of employment equality legislation.
“The Labour Court in its decision also found that the company did not engage in any meaningful way with Murphy’s request and had rather sought to hastily construct a retrospective type of objective justification for its decision to compel him to retire on his 65th birthday. The Labour Court also found that there was no mandatory retirement provision in Murphy’s contract of employment and there were no performance, health and safety or concentration issues with him prior to his retirement. It light of this it found there was no objective justification that the Company could rely on in support of its decision to compulsorily retire him on reaching the age of 65.”
Hartery added: “We welcome this decision from the Labour Court. Our member was simply discarded by this employer after 45 years of loyal service, as was evidenced by the complete lack of consideration given to his requests to work on for one year beyond age 65.”
SIPTU Head of Legal Rights Unit, Rachael Ryan, said: “SIPTU has long campaigned for legislation to be introduced that will allow but not compel workers to remain in their employment until they reach the State pension age. Such legislation, properly drafted, would protect workers in the situation Liam Murphy found himself in. While the Government did introduce a Bill to address this issue on 1st April this year, there appears to be no urgency on the matter. The Bill was last debated before the Dáil on 2nd July. In the meantime, workers remain without these protections.”