Employment Contract change at 66.

armstrongracer

Looking for some advice on this. Turned 66 a few months ago, started late having kids so cant really afford to retire till kids are done with school/college. Thankfully I'm healthy, active and still have me marbles, plan you go on working till 70. Work for a manufacturing consultancy so not exactly lugging sacks around, what I'm selling is 45+ years of experience and whats in my head.

HR (in USA) woke up to my age and sent me a new conract over Christmas and effectively want to put me on a 1 year rolling contract. This I didnt sign up for when I took the job. I worked as a self employed ltd Co contractor for many years and was approached to join this company as a permanent employee 2 years ago, I figured it would be a bit more stable than contracting. That stability meant a 25% drop in salary however.

Parent Co is US based and we are their EU satellite operation. I was employee no2 and effectively head hunted because of my knowledge. As we are small, HR and payroll is outsourced to one of those organisations who do contract HR/Payroll. They are mainly UK based and Ireland is very much a back-office operation. I think they are driving the contract chage because of an interpretation of Irish employment law. Now here is the thing, I've taken a big pay cut for the security of permanent employment and now they want to put me on a 1 year contract. Is this allowed? Is it standard practice when you hit 66 cos I'm not exactly happy with this, I may as well go back contracting on the higher salary. Thoughts?

Jim_Hodge

What does your current contract say on the matter ?

armstrongracer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124133135#Comment_124133135

Just gives employment start date and probationary period, nothing else. They didnt really factor in my starting age

mrslancaster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124133135#Comment_124133135

^^ This OP. Many older contracts had retirement age at 65 to coincide with the previous pension age, now companies need a reason to refuse continued employment to 66. Nothing to stop them employing you on a yearly rolling contract until you’re 70 if that’s their plan which might seem a bit uncertain from your pov.

New rules since Dec here fyi. https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/act/2025/16/eng/enacted/a1625.pdf

Yeah Right

They can't change your contract unilaterally, without agreement from both sides.

You can say "no, thanks, I'll stick with the current one" and this is a perfectly fine and reasonable answer.

If they want to, however, they could come up with any number of ways of managing you out the door, making your position redundant, etc. There's all sorts of tricks they can pull to get rid of you, effectively. Legal tricks, but tricks nonetheless. If you are 100% against signing the new contract, you might have to own up to the fact that you might have to find a new job.

You don't mention how long you've been there, so redundancy might be a pittance.

armstrongracer

Thanks,

This is whats in the act:

“contractual retirement age” means, in relation to a contract of employment, the agespecified in the contract as the age at which an employee is obliged to retire fromemployment with an employer;

no retirement age is is specified in my original contract. So I'm still slightly confused by where I stand.

csirl

You could simply email them back with a friendly email along the lines that in Ireland people can work until 70 without needing to sign any additiional contracts etc, so no need to bother with signing a new contract etc.

mrslancaster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124133331#Comment_124133331

New rules for a contract with a 65 retirement age allows a stay until 66 not where there’s no age specified. Does the company have a handbook, insurance or pension scheme that specifies 65?

armstrongracer

No handbook applicable to Ireland, as I said effectively the parent Co's first foray into Europe and they rely a lot on the external hr company.

armstrongracer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124133340#Comment_124133340

I can't see anything relating to 70 for employment contracts, can see references to paying in to state pension till you are 70 and defering it but that doesnt seem to tie in to employment contract per se.

Dublin Calling

An American company could be used to employees working into their 70s and beyond. It is a side effect of the American Dream. I wonder what the retirement age is for the parent company?

Beefcake82

You should contact a solicitor experienced in employment law here and bring your contract for them to give you the best options available to you. Also doing this will allow you to have a documented chain for any potential funny business by the company in the future.

mrslancaster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124133380#Comment_124133380

70 age in the PS. Retirement in private sector depends on contract, C&P, policies etc. and no discrimination on age ground under equality laws. State pension can be deferred to 70.
This might have some info. https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2017/si/600/made/en/pdf

Yeah Right

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124133412#Comment_124133412

Depends on the time you were hired, I've seen older than 70.

I worked with gent who had won the All-Ireland with Louth in 1957, aged just 19. He hit 65 in 2003 and was made to retire, even though he wanted to stay on. Celtic tiger arrived, PS couldn't get staff to join, so they relaxed the rules a bit. One of those rules was 'you can't work past 65', so they reached out to recent retirees to plug the gap. He came back on a 5 year contract, then annual contracts where he had to pass a medical each January to be deemed fit for work.

They eventually forced him out aged 80, and he died within a year, as he'd been predicting for the previous 15.

Not sure if they ever got rid of it but they changed the rules for new hires after the crash anyway, so probably got rid of it then. There was a 10 year period where older lads were well able to work past 70. Probably still a few out there who have it in their contract, provided they haven't changed job/been promoted since.

armstrongracer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124133400#Comment_124133400

This was all due to the Hr/Payroll company telling them my contract needed to change, I'm starting to think they interperated the 2025 changes wrongly. What it says is that you cannot compel anyone to retire before 66 even if their contract says 65 or less, it says absolutely nothing about existing employment contracts that dont specify a defined retirement age.

Dublin Calling

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124133519#Comment_124133519

In any event, they cannot change your contract unless you agree to it. BTW, I would love to retire at 65. I have plenty of hobbies to keep me busy. We had a lad who lived to work, in his 80s it was all he could do to walk up the stairs to his office. He was not short of a few bob, so money did not come into it. He would arrive in, go to 10:00 mass and back to the office to work, everyday. That was his life and he was happiest when talking to customers on the phone.

We got new contracts during Covid, a mixture of the best conditions from multiple companies. Retirement age went up from 65 to 68. But there is other stuff they now regret. For example my place of work is listed as my home address, as it is for a load of other employees. There is no chance of getting us back into the office. I have not even visited it for two years, and last time it was for a party.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124133200#Comment_124133200

Your starting age is immaterial. Surely your contract, or terms of employment, had some mention of retirement or cessation of employment.

armstrongracer

No retirement age mentioned standard terms regarding notice period etc... which is my point here, by working past 66 I'm not a tally breaking any contractual clause so see no reason for new contract, think they may be pulling a stroke. Generally us companies do not like the employee security offered by eu law.

mrslancaster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124135098#Comment_124135098

What would happen if you refuse to sign a new contract? What could they do - fire you or make the position redundant? Unfair dismissal on age grounds plus the post is not redundant if they want to give a yearly rolling contract. What reason did they give for the new contract?

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124135098#Comment_124135098

Does your company have a pension plan? The requirement may not be directly in your employment contract, but as a result of reaching a certain age you are no longer able to meet one of the other requirements of the contract, such as qualifying, not necessarily being a member of the pension fund.

As for your last comment, I have worked as HQ staff for 3 US MNCs in Europe and I never heard anyone getting upset about complying with EU labour laws. It just one of many sets of labour laws that must be complied with and the cost of doing business, plus as you said it is a sateline office so they might just not even be aware of the issues. So just talk to them and find out their understanding of the situation.

Flinty997

Can I be a cynic and suggest taking a contractor in at 25% less salary as a permanent then changing that to a rolling contract effectively makes you a contractor again just on 25% less. Having their cake and eating it. Not that being an employee in such a small subsidiary (that they can pull the plug) has in reality any security over being a contractor.

Or it's a HR misinterpretation. I would go with this until you get any vibes that it is not this.

I would be also thinking of preparing a backup plan to jump ship. Dust off the contracting hat in case it's needed.