The latest newsletter suggests we don't yet know what the impact of the forthcoming age discrimination legislation. Employees learnt something recently, via a Q&A follow-up to a generic intranet news item from David Heath published in May.
The company has reviewed Ts&Cs in the light of the legislation and proposes these changes:
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The first change will be to the normal retirement age (which is the age at which you are contractually obliged to stop working for IBM UK). With effect from 1st October 2006, this will increase to 65. The second change will be the removal of additional pre-retirement vacation provisions which are directly age related and therefore unlawful. All other terms and conditions of employment will remain unaffected.
NB: there is no change to your company pension age as per your pension plan
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Some eagle-eyed individuals spotted this and have followed up with HR, only to have it confirmed that all the current special pre-vacation entitlement will cease as of October 1. What this means is that anyone retiring post-October will no longer be entitled to:
(a) a full year's vacation entitlement in the year they retire, regardless of how long one works in that year.
(b) up to 13 day's additional pre-retirement vacation, one day being credited for each full month's advance notice given of one's intended retirement date.
As the extract says, IBM determined that these provisions were "directly age related" and thus unlawful.
It seems to me that they are only indirectly age-related. They are directly retirement-related, but they are available to all employees regardless of age, subject to the employee being eligible to retire. However that's not how IBM is choosing to see it, and I feel this is nothing more or less than another erosion of benefits.
The Q&A also references another document on the proposed flexible retirement provisions. These are not yet confirmed but the summary is this:
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The first flexible retirement option will enable employees to draw a portion of their pension and remain in IBM's employment on a reduced hours basis and typically for a pre-agreed period after which they will retire and leave the Company.
The second flexible retirement option is to retire, leave IBM's employment and return to the workforce after a break in service, through a third party, subject to the Company's rehire policy.
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Employees can find all this on the intranet under UK HR - Workforce Diversity - Age.