International Comparisons
Active Strategies for Older Workers: The Point of View of the European Trade Union Movement
Speech
March 2004
Martin Hutsebaut
Administrative Manager
European Trade Union Institute
A
Balancing Act: Achieving Adequacy and Sustainability in
Retirement Income Reform
Brussels, Belgium
The situation today and the general position of the ETUC
It is generally acknowledged that the employment status of the over 55’s is unsatisfactory : in 2001 the employment rate in the 55-64 age group in the EU was only 38,5%, what is far below the target of 50% set in Stockholm in 2001 for 2010. Only four countries out of 15 reached the target already in 2001 : Sweden (66.5%), Denmark (58.0%), UK (52.3%) and Portugal (50.3%). All the other countries stayed far behind.
The employment trend of older workers over the period 1995-2001 was most favourable in Finland (+11.2% points), in The Netherlands (+10.5% points), in Denmark (+8.2% points), in Ireland (+7.7% points) and in Spain (+6.8% points). For EU15 the increase in employment rate was + 2.6% points.
Looking at the average age of withdrawal from the labour market in 2000/2001 we observe low withdrawal ages in Luxembourg (57.5 years), Belgium (58.1 y) and France (58.7y) besides ages above 63 years in Portugal (64.5 y), Ireland (64.3y), Denmark (63.6 y), Sweden (63.2 y) and UK (63.2 y).
The European Trade Union Confederation has never accepted this situation as irreversible, in particular since the original social response (early withdrawal) to an economic problem (high youth unemployment) was subsequently diverted from its original objective, namely to create more employment opportunities for young workers. Indeed, very soon the social measure of early retirement was turned into a convenient tool for companies to get rid of older employees at a low cost at an ever earlier age.
Soon it became clear that this dumping of older workers also led to a waste of human, social and economic resources, depriving enterprises of valuable expertise and know how and in fact of the “memory” of the company. Numerous are the companies and even sectors who soon after having laid off their older workers, were confronted with huge shortages of qualified workers and made great efforts to re-recruit the same people they first excluded.
The ETUC cannot accept the systematic exclusion of older workers from the labour market but neither the European Commission’s radical stance on the general discouraging of early withdrawal from the labour market : for the ETUC early retirement scheme should remain available as instruments of last resort to alleviate painful industrial restructurings if no other jobs are available and also as exit route for particular heavy or unhealthy jobs.
In the whole discussion on activation of older workers the ETUC believes that before starting to discuss about the increase of the statutory retirement age – like some employers do – Europe should look for policies which allow and motivate men and women to remain active until they reach the normal statutory retirement age.
The research conducted by the ETUI a.o. allow to indicate ways and means to reach this objective.
The way forward
The main policies used to maintain older workers in the labour market include :
- Removing incentives to early retirement and encouraging later retirement and flexible retirement;
- Legislation to counter age discrimination and awareness-raising campaigns among employers in view of changing attitudes;
- Guidance and training programmes targeting older workers;
- Employment incentive schemes including active employment policies and special job offers for older workers.
Two other policy issues identified as being vital in an integrated approach to active strategies but rarely implemented are care infrastructures and working conditions.
An in-depth analysis of these policy areas has learned that all above-mentioned issues are of equal importance and that they are all multidimensional and complex in themselves. This makes the issue of active ageing even more challenging for policy makers.