Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to revisit Air Canada retirement age issue

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal will be revisiting the issue of whether Air Canada was wrong to force some pilots to retire at age 60.

A decision publicly released on Friday says the tribunal will hold another hearing to determine whether the airline had the right to force 45 pilots to retire at an age it deemed to be the industry standard.

The decision says the case originally had 97 complainants, but 52 of them will not have their retirement age scrutinized by the tribunal.

The issue of retirement age for Air Canada pilots has come up both at the tribunal and in federal court numerous times in the past decade.

Two cases with different complainants, but similar arguments, were ruled upon by the tribunal, reviewed in federal court, then ultimately dismissed by the Federal Court of Appeal.

The tribunal says the 52 pilots whose retirement dates were covered by the previous cases will not be included in the new hearing, but says it will hear arguments from the remaining 45 whose retirement dates fall outside of the timeline covered by the other cases.