The question of how to deal with older members of staff, particularly those who have worked for a business for a long time, can be a difficult one for managers.

At present, employers must follow a fairly strict retirement process that penalises them for failing to comply, but which does allow them to choose to retire an employee without the employee having any say in the matter. From 6 April 2011, this process began to fall away and, from 1 October 2011, it will be age discrimination to dismiss someone by reason of retirement as the default retirement age (DRA) bites the dust.