Are you a senior employee wondering whether your employer has the right to terminate your employment? Or are you an employer wondering whether you can require an employee to retire due to age limits? In this article, you can learn about age limits in employment relationships.

The main rule

An employment relationship may be terminated when the employee reaches the age of 72. This general rule is set out in Section 15-13 a of the Working Environment Act. The employee is entitled to written notice that he or she is required to resign. Resignation cannot be required until six months after the notice has been received by the employee. The deadline is calculated from the first day of the month after the employee received such notice.

Before such notice is given, the employer shall, as far as possible, call the employee in for a meeting.

This rule means that even if an employee has reached the age of 72, he or she may continue in the position for a further six months if no notice has been given. If notice is given when the employee has just reached the age of 73, he or she may remain in the position until the age of 73½.

Exceptions to lower age limits

In certain cases, it is possible to set a lower age limit than 72 years. According to the Working Environment Act, a lower age limit may be set if necessary for safety or health reasons.

Furthermore, it is permissible to set a lower age limit than 72 if this is applied consistently and the arrangement is made known to the employees. This also presupposes that there is a satisfactory occupational pension scheme. The employer must discuss such a lower age limit with the employee representatives. However, even if the employer has complied with all these conditions, the age limit cannot be set lower than 70 years.

An age limit lower than 72 always requires that it is objectively justified and that it is not disproportionately intrusive. In practice, this means that employers must consider whether there is a genuine reason for having a lower age limit and document the assessments that were made when this was decided.

Especially when it is the employee who wants to quit

When an employee has reached the relevant age limit and wishes to resign, he or she must notify the employer. It is not necessary to give written notice, but we always recommend doing so. The employee may resign one month after the end of the month in which he or she gave notice of resignation. 

Audun Lillestølen, Lawyer (H)

The author of this article is a lawyer with the right to appear before the Supreme Court. He has worked with labor law for more than 20 years.