Campaigners seeking to abolish compulsory retirement at 65 have received a setback after the European court of justice was advised to rule against them.
An advocate-general in Luxembourg rejected Age Concern's claim that requiring workers to retire at 65 breaches EU equality law.
The test-case is crucial to hundreds of employees who are challenging the UK policy of compulsory retirement without compensation through tribunals.
Gordon Lishman, director general of Age Concern said: "This is a setback, but it is not a disaster.
"Not having the advocate-general's support for our case is disappointing for us and for the millions of older workers in the UK."
However, the campaigners are not giving up on the issue, with EU judges set to rule on the case later this year, while a final appeal can be lodged with the high court.
Ailsa Olgive, director of Heyday, one of Age Concern's member organisations, said: "If the European court confirms this opinion, the case would then have to go back to the high court London for a final decision.
"We hope the high court would not want to remove the choice for people to work in later life if they wish to or if they need to.
"Denying people work because of their date of birth is grossly unfair, and in these tough times we expect more people will need to carry on working into 'retirement' in order to make ends meet."
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