Over 65s are to get the same rights to unfair dismissal and redundancy payments as younger workers under new measures to outlaw age discrimination in the workplace, Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson has announced.

The new measures published this week are the final stage of implementing the European Employment Directive.

With the approval of Parliament, the regulations are due to come into force on 1 October 2006, bringing UK laws into line with those in the USA and in most other European Union countries.

The draft regulations (which will not affect the age at which people can claim their state pension) will mean:

• No age criteria in recruitment, promotion and training (without justification)
• No age criteria in recruitment, promotion and training (without justification)
• No mandatory retirement before 65 (without justification)
• New processes to manage retirement for everyone
• No upper limits on unfair dismissal
• No direct age criteria in redundancy

Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson said; "Individuals should have the choice to carry on working if they want to. This is not about forcing people to work longer, it is about freedom to choose."

However, Conservative shadow Trade and Industry Secretary, David Willetts, claimed the proposals meant employers were still free to force workers into retirement at age 65.

"The government's press release is seriously misleading." David Willetts said. "It implies that people aged over 65 will have the same rights on unfair dismissal as younger workers."

"However," he said, "the announcement today makes quite clear that 'retirement will not constitute unfair dismissal if it is on or after 65', so older people can in fact be dismissed in a way younger people cannot."