Ireland: Proposed Legislation Requires Employees’ Consent to Contractual Retirement Age Where It’s Less Than the State Pension Age

The Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Bill 2025 was recently published and provides that an employee may notify their employer that they do not consent to retire at the contractual retirement age, where the contractual age is less than the State Pension Age.  In addition, an employer cannot enforce the contractual retirement age without providing written objective and reasonable justifications for the retirement age.

On 1 April 2025 the Irish Government published the Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Bill 2025 (the “Bill”).  The Bill, once enacted, will introduce significant changes and implications for employers by introducing a statutory provision prohibiting an employer from enforcing a contractual retirement age, which is below the State Pension Age (currently 66 years of age) if the employee does not consent to retire.

The Bill provides as follows:

1. Written Notice: Where an employee’s contract of employment contains a contractual retirement age, which is set below the State Pension Age, the employee must notify their employer in writing, within a specific time period, that they do not consent to retire at the contractual retirement age.
2. Reasoned Reply: The employer must, within one month of having received the employee’s written notification, provide the employee with a reasonable written reply setting out the justifications for the contractual retirement age.
3. Objective and Reasonable Justification: The employer’s justification must set out why the contractual retirement age of employees is “objectively and reasonably justified by a legitimate aim,” and that the means of achieving that aim are appropriate and necessary. This is in line with the current case law on age discrimination in Ireland.
4. Redress: Where the employer has breached their obligations under this Bill, the employee may lodge a complaint with the Workplace Relations Commission (“WRC”). An Adjudication Officer of the WRC may require the employer to take a specific course of action such as re-instatement or re-engagement of the employee or award compensation to the employee, which is just and equitable but not exceeding an amount up 104 weeks’ pay or €40,000, whichever is greater.  The Bill also includes a number of criminal offences for non-compliance. An employer who fails to provide an employee with a reasoned written reply will be guilty of an offence punishable by a fine not exceeding €5,000 or a maximum 12-month prison term, or both.

The Bill will now be debated by the Irish Government, wherein certain changes may apply.  For now, employers ought to consider before the legislation is introduced, whether they have contractual mandatory retirement ages below the State Pension Age. And if so, whether the employer can point to an objective justification supporting the same.