Last updated 08:22, Tuesday, 07 October 2008

AT 72, Harry Holdforth is the oldest employee in BAE Systems.

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NOT FEELING AT THE END OF THE ROAD: Eddie Boddington, BAE design engineer REF: 0452171

The electrician works 37 hours a week, and overtime when he needs to.

He has no idea when he’s going to retire and, because his employer abolished mandatory retirement, he will carry on working as long as he’s fit.

Mr Holdforth is one of a generation of pensioners to continue working beyond 65, either because they love their work or because they are obliged to, if their pension is inadequate.

“Without work there’s no motivation,” said Mr Holdforth, a father-of-three from Walney.

“I like doing what I’m doing. I don’t like sitting round the house doing nothing.

“I prefer to be working. And I’ve still got ambitions. One is getting a telegram from the Queen.”

For Mr Holdforth and his colleagues at BAE, retirement will come when they decide or when they are no longer physically fit to do the job.

For as long as they want to continue working, BAE will actively encourage them.

There are currently 19 core workers at Barrow’s shipyard over 65, not including contractors.

BAE spokesman Chris Nelson said: “If somebody shows willingness to work after 65, BAE will accommodate them wherever possible.

“As part of that policy, if a person still has the skill and is medically fit then we will look at it favourably as long as the medical side of things stacks up, which it has done in most cases.

“Where people want to do it we encourage them to continue.

“I think they bring skills they learnt years ago and help younger people in business and show them how their skills were gained.”

Campaigners want other employers to follow BAE’s example and scrap the mandatory retirement age.

However, employees hoping to keep their jobs beyond 65 recently suffered a setback when the Advocate-General at the European Court of Justice said Britain’s mandatory retirement age was acceptable under European law.

The legal opinion is a blow to hundreds of people forced to retire against their wishes who are claiming compensation through UK employment tribunals.

About 260 cases are already on hold in tribunals, awaiting the outcome of the Age Concern test case, and thousands more claims could follow from pensioners forced to retire against their will.

The UK Regulations, introduced in 2006, do ban discrimination on grounds of age, but excludes pensioners, who can be dismissed at 65 without redundancy payments, or at the employer’s mandatory retirement age if it is above 65.

Acknowledging the setback, Age Concern is challenging the law – which could take another five months.

In the meantime many more people could be denied work because of their age, which seems hugely unfair to some in these tough economic times.

Edwin Boddington, better known as Eddie, is a design engineer at BAE who admits that money is an incentive to continue working.

But like many other people skipping retirement, work keeps him intellectually stimulated.

“If you’re a professional engineer you’ll always have a certain interest in proving physical principles and seeing them work,” he said.

“When you see something built and finished it’s quite fulfilling.

“There’s still things to learn and prove and there’s the mental stimulation.

“I don’t feel I’m quite at the end of the road yet, even though I’m 66.”

Mr Boddington has worked for BAE since 1985 as a core employee, but he’s now working part-time as a contractor. Working three days a week gives him enough time to enjoy other pursuits, such as fell walking and woodwork. And returning to work hasn’t presented too many challenges.

“It’s all computer stimulation in here,” he said.

“The use of IT and computers has changed, but the principles are much the same.

“You have to analyse and think about it. It’s problem solving. That’s what engineers are about.

“It’s quite nice to work with people again. “But I don’t want to go on and on.”

Mr Holdforth believes many people would benefit from working on.

In fact he’s all in favour of scrapping compulsory retirement.

“If they made me retire I don’t know what I’d do with myself,” he said. “If you’re healthy enough to work, I don’t see any point in stopping.

“Me and my wife have been lucky, because we’ve got our health.

“We’ve won the lottery of life.”

Should people be allowed to work past 65?