RYA Ageism?

[alant]

Apparently, the RYA set a maximum age of 60 for any employees. Ageism gone mad?
Will this also mean that membership or ability to sail after 59 years 11 months now ceases?

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[longjohnsilver]

Huh, if correct it just means that those in their final salary pension scheme will do very nicely thankyou.

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[Birdseye]

Given that the RYA now has a chief exec, has had consultants in and got rid of the old cttee structure in effect turning itself from an Association into a business , its hardly surprising.

Mind you, in my experience the large majority of 60 year olds wouldnt want to work if they didnt have to - I have to smile every time I hear the govt going on about early retirement

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[sailorman]

just have a guess as to who`s paying for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SHOULD WE WITH-HOLD OUR MEMBERSHIP FEES?.
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[charles_reed]

RYA Final salary pension scheme

I don't know that the RYA even have a defined benefits scheme - certainly these are rapidly disappearing throughout industry, internationally.

However the requirement to retire at 60 will reduce, not increase the size of pension, if the previous retirement age was 65, to about 75% of the age 65 pension.

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[billmacfarlane]

How about anyone over 60 witholding their membership fees and letting the RYA know why ? If their attitude is that you're not fit enough to work over the age of 60 why should the the RYA expect similar people to fork up part of their pension to keep the RYA going ?

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[ccscott49]

Now that is an excellent suggestion!

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[Cornishman]

Are you absolutely sure of your facts here? There is a European Union Directive which makes this sort of ageism illegel once ratified by nation state governments and our lot have said that it will apply in UK from 2005 (I think). So you won't be forced into 'early' retirement if you don't want to be.
I was forced to retire from National Trust employment at 65 shortly before Bliar suggested all who work until 70 without drawing state pension will receive an enhanced state pension when they do finish work. I would have been very happy to do what was an interesting and not too difficult job for an extra 5 years.

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[jhr]

I suspect their "Normal Retirement Age" - and the age at which their employees can take a pension without being penalised for early retirement - is 60. This may well coincide with a declared company policy that all staff must retire at that point, and it's the way in which quite a lot of companies have worked in the past and, in some cases continue to do so. It's also been standard practice in the Civil Service, I think.

However, as noted elsewhere, there is age discrimination legislation coming soon, and this kind of enforced retirement will become illegal. The details aren't quite clear yet but it seems probable that there will be some kind of fallback position (likely to be age 70) when an employer can require an employee to retire without having their pants sued off for discrimination. In the meantime, all the indications are that employers are busy "retiring" people early, whilst they still can.

There is a serious point to all of this, which is that there is, and will continue to be, a shortage of young people in the workforce and this - and the cost of paying pensions to lots of suspiciously long-lived wrinklies - means that people will have to be encouraged to work for longer or else (a) the economy will suffer and (b) there won't be enough NI contributions to pay anyone the (albeit minimal) state pension.

I don't personally agree with making people retire at 60 if they don't want to, but it must be nice to have the choice!

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[alant]

Facts confirmed by RYA as follows. As you will see, they have even employed someone as old as 57!!

" The RYA has had a retirement age of 60 for many years. I believe this was originally intended to give equal treatment to the male staff, who are in the minority here, by allowing them to retire and draw their pension at 60. It may also arise from the fact that, in the past, senior staff (generally male) were often former members of the armed forces or civil service, who had occupational pensions from their past careers and did not wish to change their retirement age from 60 to 65 on joining the RYA.
We will certainly have to review the policy within the next couple of years, however the UK legislation implementing the EU Directive on age discrimination will not take effect until October 2006. We will also need to take account of the fact that for women born in 1950 or later, the state pension age will rise over a five-year period to 65.
We certainly do not discriminate against job applicants on the grounds of age if they are below the RYA's retirement age; in fact we recently recruited a 57-year old who was clearly the best person for job, and expect her to stay for at least 3 years, which you can never say about a young employee. There is also precedent for allowing existing members of staff who wish to continue to work after their 60th birthdays to continue in employment by mutual agreement, on an annually renewable basis.
If, you are already over the RYA's retirement age I am afraid we would not be able to employ you under our current policy.

Yours sincerely

Jackie Reid
Administration Manager
Direct tel: 023 8060 4104

www.rya.org.uk <http://www.rya.org.uk> "








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