Age Discrimination in European Employment Law: Problems and Potential Reforms
By Dáire McCormack-George (School of Law at Trinity College, Dublin)
Irish employment equality law is driven by European Union policy. However, the law on age discrimination in employment is currently in a deeply worrying state. In this essay, I will make two arguments in relation to the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the lawfulness of mandatory retirement ages. First, I will argue that the case law of the Court is, in the main, inconsistent insofar as it is overly deferential and incoherent. Second, I will contest the Court’s assessment of the two key objective justifications confirmed by the Court, namely intergenerational justice and human dignity. I will argue that while both of these are legitimate, the Court’s consideration of them causes injustice for older workers, and I attempt to provide an alternative account. In Parts I and II, I provide a brief background and a descriptive account of the most significant case law to date. In Part III, I detail the arguments I have outlined here, before making some concluding observations.
Source: SSRN
