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THE grandson of former Labour prime minister Clement Attlee pledged today to push Tory ministers to lower the retirement age for prison officers.
Addressing delegates on the second day of the Prison Officers’ Association’s annual conference, John Richard Attlee — the 3rd Earl Attlee — said that it is wrong to force workers in the dangerous sector to keep working until their late sixties.
The union has proposed a retirement age of 65 for its members – three years earlier than what most workers born after 1960 face.
Earl Attlee said: “I am now 65 years old. When I get up in the morning, my joints are stiff, my back aches and if I drop my toothpaste on the floor, it’s a logistical nightmare.
“I cannot understand how anyone thinks it is reasonable to have a retirement age of 68 for a prison officer.”
The Tory peer, who has often spoken out on working conditions in the sector, also told delegates in Eastbourne that there should be zero tolerance for violence against prison officers.
