Employment Law Report: Analysis of Mandatory Retirement in Canada

This report delves into the issue of mandatory retirement in Canada, examining its historical context and the legal battles surrounding it. It begins by highlighting the pre-2010 practice where employers could force employees over 65 to retire. The report then explores the current legal landscape, emphasizing the role of the Human Rights Code of Canada and its prohibition of age-based discrimination. It discusses the impact of the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Canada Labour Code, which aim to protect older workers. The report also presents opposing viewpoints, such as arguments regarding reduced work capacity and the physical demands of certain jobs. The author expresses their opinion that employees should not be terminated solely based on age, provided they meet job requirements. The report references relevant academic sources to support its analysis.

Running head: EMPLOYMENT LAW
Mandatory Retirement
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note

1EMPLOYMENT LAW
Topic: Mandatory Retirement in Canada: Should Employers be able to Force Older
Employees to Retire?
Thesis statement:
In Canada, mandatory retirement was a problem that shook the employment arena
before 2010. According to certain senior counsel, once an employee reached 65 years, the
employer forced them to resign from the post. However, agitation has been made from all the
stages of employment against the process of mandatory retirement of the older employees
and certain findings has been made in this report on the validity of the process of mandatory
retirement and rights of the employer to force the elder employees to resign from their post.
Summary of the legal issues:
According to the Human Rights code of Canada, no employees shall be
discriminated as against their age. The provision on mandatory retirement has been
prohibited by the Ontario Human Rights Code. According to the code, no employer shall
force an employee who has reached the age of 65 year to get resigned from the post without
showing any reasonable cause. It has also been stated that the employers are required to meet
bonafide occupational requirement before terminating an older employee. An initiative
regarding the matter has been taken by the Canada Labour Code in the year 2012 where it has
been mentioned that if an elder employee can meet all the skills and aptitude requires for the
job, he/ she should not be getting terminated from their post. The statement has been
supported by the CBC News in their Articles named ‘Mandatory retirement fades in Canada’
("Mandatory retirement fades in Canada", 2018).

2EMPLOYMENT LAW
Opposing viewpoints:
There are certain opposing viewpoints present regarding the topic. It has been
stated by many employers that after the age of 65 years, the working capacity of an employee
gets reduced and he could not reach the target of the respective job. Further, there are certain
jobs where the physical ability of the employees is the prime factors such as fire fighting and
police work. The older employees are facing serious problem at that age and retirement
becomes a good option thereby.
Self opinion:
It can be opined that no employee should be terminated forcefully from their post.
If the working criteria need physical power, the weak employees can be asked for resign from
the post. However, if the employee could meet the office requirement, he ought not to be
terminated by the employer just because he has reached the age of 65 years. According to
Alan Belanger (2016), it is important to understand the employment participation by the elder
workers before terminated them from the post (Bélanger, Carrière & Sabourin, 2016).

3EMPLOYMENT LAW
Reference:
Bélanger, A., Carrière, Y., & Sabourin, P. (2016). Understanding employment participation
of older workers: The Canadian perspective. Canadian Public Policy, 42(1), 94-
109.
Mandatory retirement fades in Canada. (2018). CBC News. Retrieved 26 February 2018, from
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/mandatory-retirement-fades-in-canada-1.799697