RETIREMENT

MEANING
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
FEATURES
 MEANING OF RETIREMENT:
• Man cannot work efficiently after a certain age when he grows old and weak.
After reaching this age, he needs rest and relaxation. With the creation of public
service as a permanent career, it is desirable that the government should ensure
its employees an easy and carefree life in their old age.
• Prof L.D. White has rightly observed, “A retirement system for civil
employees is primarily designed to facilitate the termination of
employment of men and women whose powers have failed on account of
age or disability by granting allowances for past services; to provide
benefits to dependents in case of death; and to improve the morale of
services by creating a sense of economic security. From the point of view
of the employee, the retirement system helps to compensate for modest
scale of pay, relieves anxiety for the future, and furnishes a convenient
means of regular saving.”
AIMS AND OBJECTS OF RETIREMENT
SYSTEM

1. It eliminates from public services those employees who, due to

incapacity or old age, are unable to discharge their duties adequately. This
is necessary in the interest of efficiency and economy in the service.
2. Retirement of older employees from highest positions is essential to
provide opportunities for promotion to comparatively younger group of
employees. The number of higher posts is limited. Lower level employees
can be promoted to higher posts only if they fall vacant.
3. To inject new blood with fresh ideas in public services, it is necessary that
older employees should retire so that room be provided for new entrants
abreast of new ideas and the latest techniques.

4.Unless there is a retirement system men and women at a young age would
not feel attracted to the public services. A system of pensions on retirement is a
great source of attraction for people who take to public services
5. For retaining the best qualified persons in government service, a
retirement system is imperative. A system of pensions on retirement boosts
the morale of the employees who have not to worry for their support after
retirement. In the absence of retirement system, many officers may join
the private enterprises and leave the public service.
6. On humanitarian grounds also, it is desirable that employees who have
become less efficient or are incapacitated for work as a result of physical
disabilities consequent upon advancing years, must not be made to retire
from the service without adequate provision for the remaining years of
life.
• Age of Retirement:
• The age of retirement varies from country to country according to the
climatic conditions and the average expectation of longevity of life.
• The age of retirement is generally fixed by the statute but in certain
important cases it may also be fixed by the Constitution (for example, the
retirement age of the judges of High Courts and Supreme Court and
members of the Public Service Commission in India has been fixed by the
Constitution).
• In the United States the retire­ment age of employees is 65 to 70 years, in
Britain 60 to 65 years, and in India, 55-58 years later raised to sixty years for
the Central Government employees by the BJP coalitional govern­ment.
SALIENT FEATURES OF RETIREMENT
SYSTEM:
• (a) Retirement is compulsory at a fixed age. In certain cases constitution of the
country fixes the age of superannuation. In India, for instance, the retirement age of
the judges of the High Court and the Supreme Court and of the members of the
Public Service Commissions both at the Centre and in the states has been fixed up
according to the Constitution.
• The em­ployees are required to retire at a certain age even if their physical fitness
has not been im­paired. The climatic, temperamental and other features of the
country are taken into consider­ation while fixing up the superannuation age. In
India this age is 55 to 60 years
• (b) Every retirement system makes a provision for pensions to the
members retired. They are paid wholly by the government but they
cannot be claimed as a right and it can be withheld if the employee is
suspected of subversive activities detrimental to the interests of the state
or if he has acquired a foreign citizenship or has attempted to undermine
the prestige of the government.
• A public servant may be forced to retire due to physical disability or ill
health. In that case, he is to be paid proportionate pension.
• (c) Besides pensions, there are certain other benefits, viz., provident fund,
insurance, etc., to which the employees are entitled after retirement.
• (i) Partially they are contributory and partially non-contributory, the
government and the employee contributing half and half.
• (ii) These benefits are paid not monthly but in a lump sum at the time of
retirement