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New discrimination rules could leave employers looking for an exit strategy
Those involved in pensions 15 years ago will have the words Barber and Guardian Royal Exchange etched on their memories. This case centred on a European Court of Justice ruling that it was unlawful to prevent a man from getting his (in this case early retirement) pension at the same age as a woman.
The case spawned a rash of test cases exploring the boundaries of what did and did not amount to sex discrimination in the context of pensions. The result was a hurried move on the part of pension schemes to equalise normal retirement ages for men and women.
The shockwaves registered by Barber v GRE reverberated around the pension industry. If pensions had a Richter scale, this event would have registered about six out of 10. The reason for this brief history lesson is that another...