Contracts of employment: Enforced retirement did not breach contractual equal opportunities policy

In Taylor v Secretary of State for Scotland [1999] IRLR 362, the Court of Session holds that the enforced retirement of a prison officer, who had passed the minimum retirement age but had not reached compulsory retirement age, was not in breach of his employer's equal opportunities policy, which prohibited age discrimination and was a condition of his contract of employment. The contract also gave the employer a wide discretion to decide when persons who had passed the minimum retirement age should retire before reaching compulsory retirement age, and that discretion could not have been intended by the parties to be fettered by age considerations.