A bill read last month in the House of Assembly would prevent all of the territory’s employers, including government, from compelling any employee to retire on the basis of age before they turn 65.
Lawmakers moved for the first reading of the Compulsory Retirement Age Act 2016 during their most recent sitting in June, and the bill was Gazetted last week.
The law would void any employment contract or agreement that stipulates a compulsory retirement age below 65.
Public officers currently have a compulsory retirement age of 60, but leaders have been discussing the possibility of raising it for more than a decade.
In August 2005, then-National Democratic Party by-election candidate (and soon-to-be lawmaker) Elmore Stoutt said the age should complement the Social Security’s Old Age Pension, which kicks in at 65.
During the February 2015 budget debate, Health and Social Development Minister Ronnie Skelton said he too would like to raise public officers’ retirement age. Requiring retirement at 60, he said, was causing “unnecessary hardship for people” who often ended up needing assistance from government’s Social Development Department.
Opposition member Alvin Christopher, then the Second District representative, spoke similarly at the time.
“I would say that more than 75 percent of our workforce is more than able to work for another five years,” Ms. Christopher said of the 60-year-old retirees.
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