A SIPTU member who worked at the Deepak Fasteners manufacturing plant in Shannon, County Clare, has been awarded €18,000 by the Labour Court after being forced to retire at 65.
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.
The Labour Court heard that Mr Murphy’s job did not involve any heavy lifting, nor had he ever had an accident while at work.
The company’s witness said that they are currently loss-making and have been working with the IDA to develop an expertise in hydrogen embrittlement testing, with the result that many of its recent hires have been people with specific skills.
Newly-recruited employees undergo up to four months of intensive training, under the supervision of an engineer, to develop skills in areas related.
According to the witness, the company has 47 employees with an average age of 56.
He also told the court that there is a risk that a significant percentage of that workforce will retire in or around the same time and this, combined with the respondent’s new business focus, creates an imperative to hire new people with specific skills so as to permit the company “to pivot in a new direction”.
SIPTU Workers Rights Centre advocate Rachel Hartery said that “the Labour Court in its decision 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.”
SIPTU head of legal rights, Rachael Ryan, added that the union “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 the 1st of April this year, there appears to be no urgency on the matter. The bill was last debated before the Dáil on the 2nd of July. In the meantime, workers remain without these protections.”
