PRINCE.EDWARD.ISLAND (CBC) - Three more professors have joined the fight against mandatory retirement at the University of Prince Edward Island.

Under the current contract UPEI has with both its faculty and staff, employees must retire at age 65, but some recent retirees have taken their case against that policy to the P.E.I. Human Rights Commission. Three retired professors - Robert O'Rourke, Ron Collins and Barry Bartmann - recently joined the fight, bringing the total number of cases to six.

"The process and policy is discriminatory," faculty union representative Wayne Peters told CBC News on Thursday, adding other Canadian universities are coming to this view.

"It certainly seems to be the way the winds blowing across the country and that's wonderful and positive. I certainly hope UPEI would look at that."

While many Canadian universities have similar retirement policies, that is changing. Universities in Quebec and Ontario no longer have mandatory retirement, and the Université de Moncton also recently dropped the policy.

UPEI says the policy is needed to bring fresh ideas to the university.

"The aspect of renewal in a community where you're doing learning and scholarship is very important and this is one way of accomplishing that," said human resources director Peggy Leahy.

While the policy is entrenched in the university's employee contracts, the human rights commission could overturn it. That's Bartmann's hope.

"It's based on the irrational notion that when you hit your 65th birthday, something begins to happen inside you, and I certainly don't feel that way," said Bartmann.

Bartmann points out it is difficult for the university to argue he is no longer able to do his job now that he's 65. The school still employs him as a sessional, on course-by-course contracts, at a fraction of the salary he earned as an employee.

The faculty association warns the number of professors involved in the human rights case will only increase as more are forced to retire.

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