ADEA

LindaS

I have been asked the following question and am not sure of the answer so I'm hoping some of you can help me.

Does anyone know if there is an exception in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act that allows a company to force retirement on an individual if they are over the age of 65 and if their pension provides an annual payout of at least $44,000? If so, does anyone know if the exception explains where the $44,000 needs to come from? Is Social Security benefits or 401(k) to be included in this amount?

Can anyone direct me where to find the exact wording if, in fact, this exception exists?

Thanks.

Pork

LINDAS: You should first turn to your company policy to make sure your company has not published anything. 2ndly, I as an aging person would be very upset if the company had a written policy to force retirement on me. The company does not know of my personal financial situation, medical condition, mental condition to determine that I can not funtion in my position right along side of a younger person. As we baby boomers (and I am technically outside of that group on the older side) grow older we are living longer and producing well. Unless your organization is a governmental operation, the retirement system underwhich I will retire is private savings, 401K, IRA, and none of the companies' business. You will have to tell us more about the $44,000 item!

I recommend your company reassess any need to force retire anyone; now, if I am not "cutting the mustard" you should be evaluating, and moving my vision of "how strong I am" onto a more realistic vision of reality. I will not stick around if I am not producing at an acceptable level of performance, but have the GUTs to be up-front and tell me so, before I hurt myself or someone. We have 4 retirees working for us now and they are doing a great job. I am one, the warehouse manager is another, our Semen Driver is another, and our warehouse janitor is another.

PORK

LindaS

Pork...

Thank you for your response and let me assure you that our company, IN NO WAY, forces retirement on anyone.

The question was posed to me by one of our accounting people who was asked the question by a student in one of the accounting classes he teaches in the evening. Since I didn't know whether or not there was actually this type of exception in the ADEA I thought I would throw it out there to see if anyone had heard of such a thing. As for the $44,000 thing, this is the number this person was given by the student.

FYI - we have an individual who keeps threatening to retire and we, luckily, still have him around!!!

Pork

LINDAS: Great, the $44,000 thing does not jar anything loose in this old HR & Benefits head!

PORK

Betty I_O

This head may be older than yours, Pork . . . there was an exemption under ADEA. Maybe one of our FORUM legal experts can verify if this still exists? As I recall, an employer could involuntarily retire a bona fide executive who was over the age of 65, was in their job for the past two years, and was entitled to a retirement benefit from the employer that was worth at least $44,000 annually. It's my recollection that the annual benefit excluded Social Security benefits, benefits from previous employers, or benefits from employee contributions.

Don D

Persons of a certain age can be forced to retire if they hold certain positions of top management and were appointed by a board of directors and are officers of publicly traded corporations. The age requirement is written in the corporate bylaws. I think I'm close on that.

Pork

"DANDY DON" Thanks, my experience base has never taken me to the tresh hold of a publicly traded company, thus, my shortness of intellect.

You are usually right, I got your previous message; may you have a better and Blessed day, before you attack again! I read it with a great deal of concern for your health.

PORK