‘Normal retiring age’

Royal and Sun Alliance Insurance Group plc v Payne UKEAT/0122/05 1 August 2005

The employee was dismissed on the day before his 62nd birthday. He claimed that he was wrongfully dismissed because his contractual retirement age (‘CRA’) was 65. The employment tribunal found in the employee’s favour and rejected the employer’s contention that his CRA had been reduced to 62. On appeal the issues were whether the employee’s CRA was 62 because (a) it was an implied term that the CRA would be determined in the light of the employer’s pension policy and (b) the employee’s employment contract had been varied so as to reduce his contractual retirement age to 62, and in particular whether the employee had accepted by his conduct the employer’s attempt to reduce his contractual retirement age to 62. The EAT dismissed the appeal holding the employee’s contractual retirement age to be 65.