unreasonable.
statutory requirement for an employer
to make a payment to a dismissed employee, based on his
length of service, would achieve much the same
age and
result as
an employee's
compensation under unfair
entitlement to monetary
dismissal legislation while
avoiding the need for
for complex and expensive procedures
to establish that the dismissal had been unreasonable.
The long service payment proposals put forward
in this Employment (Amendment) Bill are aimed at the
older employee and take into account his length of
service as well as his age. An employee aged 40 or less
must have at least 10
least 10 years' service to
to qualify for a
long service payment. Above this age, the minimum
qualifying service is progressively reduced
to
obtain
that an
employee aged 45 or more requires only 5 years' service
to qualify. The rationale for progressively reducing
the period of qualifying service after the age of 40 is
that this age is generally considered to be the peak of
an employee's working life beyond which he will find it
increasingly difficult
alternative
employment. In the case of a manual
manual worker it
worker it is also
the age beyond which his energy and productivity become
harder to maintain. It is also felt
felt that a younger
employee who has spent ten of the most productive years
of his life with the same employer also deserves
recognition
for his
loyalty,
though
because
the