In setting down a retirement age in a contract of employment, should you include the objective grounds for the retirement age in order to try to manage expectations or are you just tying your hands for the future? What would you advise?

Although compulsory retirement clauses were once common features in contracts of employment, their current use is rare following the abolition of the default retirement age. Compulsory retirement is now potentially unlawful age discrimination, and should only be used where the employer can objectively justify it as a “proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”.

Due to the risk of potential age discrimination, we recommend that serious consideration is given as to whether such a clause could be justified. It should be noted that even where the employer considers it is justified in forcing employees to retire, it is not strictly necessary to put a clause such as this in the