Catherwood LibraryILR School

The British government's plans to implement European Union anti-discrimination laws by 2006 are running into heavy opposition from major business leaders, who claim that anti-age discrimination provisions will cause huge problems for businesses. The EU directive would likely require Britain to prohibit businesses from adopting mandatory retirement ages---something that the Confederation of Business Industry (CBI) argues would cause massive staffing and workforce planning problems, and result in large increases in lawsuits by older workers. The CBI's opposition to curtailing the ability of companies to force older workers to retire is not shared by the British Chamber of Commerce which represents many small businesses that do not set mandatory retirement ages.