The Weinberger Ruling – The Employer's Obligation to Consider Continuing to Employ the Employee After Retirement Age:
- In the Weinberger judgment, this court noted the tension between the determination of the mandatory retirement age and the principle of general equality and the Equality Law, which prohibit discrimination against an employee because of his age. The ICJ also pointed to the negative consequences of forced retirement in various aspects, especially against the background of the significant increase in life expectancy: harm to social-emotional aspects, in view of the importance of work to individual life and its being "a central source of satisfaction, meaning, fulfillment, self-determination, personal development, interpersonal relationships, and social involvement"; the violation of the dignity and freedom of occupation of the elderly; potential harm to the health condition; Significant economic damage, even in circumstances in which the employee has a comprehensive pension arrangement, and certainly in circumstances in which the employee did not have a pension arrangement for a significant part of his employment period.
- The Supreme Court's rulings also give expression to the negative consequences of forced retirement. Thus, further in the case of Naomi Nevo [High Court of Justice 104/87 Nevo v. National Labor Court, IsrSC 44 (4) 794 (1990), it was held that:
"Retirement from work has negative personal, mental and social consequences. In many cases, a person who retires from his job due to his advanced age feels that he is no longer a partner in the company's manufacturing system. He felt that he was being deprived of the satisfaction of his work and the satisfaction of receiving remuneration for his labor. This feeling is also strengthened by society's attitude, which in many cases treats him as an "old man" who is no longer useful. Things are even more acute these days, when the average life expectancy is increasing, and a person's health is maintained even at advanced ages. As a result, the number of years in which an elderly person, strong in body and soul, is compelled, despite his virtues, to withdraw from his activity in the labor market and to look, often in frustration, at the active stream of life in which he is no longer allowed to take part" (ibid., at p. 755).