Police officer faces retirement after missing age-extension request

A Lithuanian police officer with 36 years of service is due to be dismissed when he turns 60 after failing to submit a request to extend his service, LRT reports. Vaidas Giršvildas says he would like to keep working but was unaware he had to apply.

Giršvildas, a chief investigator in the second division of the Traffic Police Board, said he received notice that he would be dismissed on October 5, three days after the police officers’ Angel Guardians Day and one day after his 60th birthday.

He said he believed the decision was a mistake because the statute allows officers in his post category to serve until 65. But he later learned that officers had to submit a request to qualify for the extended age limit. Giršvildas said he had not heard about the requirement and that his supervisors had not alerted him.

He said several colleagues of the same age had been reminded to apply, including by phone, while he was not. Giršvildas said he was told by a deputy police commissioner general that the department was not required to notify officers.

Police Department spokesman Ramūnas Matonis said a 2015 amendment extended the service age for this category from 60 to 65, and officers who wanted the new limit had a year to submit a request. A 2024 amendment also allowed officers to apply at least six months before reaching the applicable age limit.

Matonis said officers who did not apply remained subject to the previous limit, in this case 60. He said the department has no records showing whether all officers approaching the limit were notified, and that the law does not require employers to remind them.