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Trends and job seeker should be entitled to a personal development plan, accompanied by a budget, including the possibility of getting advice and guidance from third parties. The enhancing of competencies could also be oriented towards work outside the employee’s sector of business. According to the Foundation, the Education and Development funds that exist in many branches of business can play in an import role in the implementation and financing of these facilities. The debate on lifelong learning has become part of a broader debate on life-course-friendly or life-course-oriented policies and facilities. The argument here is that a further reform and adjustment of the social security, pension and tax system is required to accommodate individuals choices and preferences, e.g. in combining work and care responsibilities, or in saving money and time for various leaves of absence or working beyond the age of 65. Many influential reports have been published, among other things, by the Ministry of Social Affairs7 and the Socio-Economic Council. 8 3.3.10. Education and publicity A number of initiatives can be observed to promote the importance of older persons’ participation in the labour market and to stress the necessary preconditions that are required to reach this goal, including the fight against prejudices in society. Among the initiatives taken are the instalment of a “Taskforce for elderly people and work”, consisting of well-known representatives of business and trade unions, former politicians and scientists (see http://www.ouderenenarbeid.nl/) and the launch of a website “Older people at work” (http://www.ouderenaandeslag.nl) that contains numerous facts, figures and opinions. 3.4. Stipulations and developments in collective labour agreements The Labour Inspectorate, part of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, has recently published a study of provisions and agreements with respect to policies for older workers in 126 collective labour agreements (CLAs) in the year 2001. This concerns a follow up study to a 1998 survey. The 126 CLAs include the Government sector and cover some 80% of all workers being covered by a CLA. This study provides insights concerning the implementation, effects and prospects of the policy initiatives reported in section 3.3. The main results of the study are as follows: 3.4.1. Stipulations on policies for older workers in general Agreements and stipulations with respect to older workers can be included in a specific section of the CLA or can be located across the agreement. No CLA explicitly defines the concept of the older worker. Various age limits are being used in referring to older workers. These limits vary between 40 and 60 years of age. • 6% of the CLAs include agreements on the promotion of older workers’ inflow; • 41% of the CLAs include agreements on research into policies for older workers (these stipulations apply to 40% of the workers, this was 36% in 1998); • 13% of the CLAs include agreements on the role of the staff association or the works council with respect to policies for older workers. 3.4.2. Stipulations that exclude older workers from certain entitlements of facilities None of the CLAs studied contain stipulations concerning the hiring and selection of employees that exclude older workers from certain jobs. The same goes for stipulations on medical examinations (in case of recruitment). Neither are older workers excluded from stipulations on career opportunities, labour market bonuses, performance pay, training or training leave. 3.4.3. Stipulations that offer something extra to older employees • 35% of the CLAs include agreements stipulating that older employees are entitled to pre-retirement leave and 3% of the CLAs include agreements on career break absences that exclusively apply to older workers. A large majority of the CLAs, 90%, contains stipulations on extra holidays for older workers, notably in the industry (94%) and trade (94%) sectors of the economy. In 2001 provisions on extra holidays applied to 80% of the workers compared to 84% in 1998. • 76% of the CLAs contain stipulations on the adaptation of working hours for older workers in order to make their job less burdensome. These stipulations pertain to overtime (64%), working the weekend (14%), odd hours (34%) and shift work (27%). Stipulations on working hours apply to 76% of the workers, compared to 60% in 1998. • 67% of the CLAs include stipulations on shorter working hours for older workers. These stipulations are most common within the Government sector (88%) and least common in the industry sector (57%). Stipulations on shorter working hours apply to 63% of the workers, compared to 60% in 1998. • 25% of the CLAs contain stipulations on career opportunities specifically aimed at older workers. These stipulations are most common within the Government sector (63%) and least common in the trade sector (11%). These stipulations can refer to either career change (6%) or allocation to a less senior job (21%). With respect to both modalities, no changes occurred in 2001 compared to 1998 (the first type of stipulation applies to 8% of the workers and the second type to 22% of the workers). • 5% of the CLAs contain stipulations on extra training leave for older workers. These stipulations apply to 8% of the workers, which represents an increase of 1% compared to 1998. • 10% of the CLAs contain age-related agreements on dismissal from employment. In most cases these agreements offer older workers a prolonged term of notification in case of dismissal. • all but two CLAs do not distinguish between older and younger workers in the area of working conditions. Yet 6 CLAs contain implicit references to working conditions for older workers. • 18% of the CLAs include age-related stipulations on medical examinations. Two types of stipulations can be noticed. The first type of stipulations (16%) offer the worker the possibility of a medical examination, at a certain age, to be paid by the employer. The second type of stipulations represent an obligation for the workers to have a medical examination (2%). Stipulations on medical examinations apply to 17% of the workers, compared to 23% in the 1998 survey. 3.4.4. Stipulations with respect to retirement There are many pathways into early retirement available to workers. One main pathway concerns the so-called VUT (vervroegde 7 SZW (2002), Verkenning Levensloop. Beleidsopties voor leren,werken, zorgen en wonen. Den Haag: Ministerie van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid. 8 Socio-Economic Council, Levensloopbanen : gevolgen van veranderende arbeidspatronen. The Hague, September 2001. 132 Spring 2003 | European Employment Observatory Review
uittreding: early retirement) schemes in which the benefit rate, usually 80% of the last earned income, does not depend on the retirement age. The second main pathway is through flexible pension schemes that usually offer 70% of the last earned income, but in which case the benefit depends on the actual retirement age (workers save money until the moment of retiring). As already indicated in the article, the Dutch Government promotes the transformation of VUT schemes into flexible pension schemes because these schemes offer more security. • 26% of the CLAs only contain a VUT-scheme, 64% contain a flexible pension scheme, whether or not in combination with a VUT scheme and 10% does not include either of these schemes. The trade sector has the highest percentage of CLAs with merely a VUT scheme and the lowest percentage of flexible pension schemes (either combined with a VUT scheme or not). Both in 2001 and 1998 VUT schemes applied to 83% of the workers. • 44% of the CLAs offer the possibility of part-time retirement. These arrangements apply to 45% of the workers, compared to 15% in 1998. • Within 44% of the CLAs the retirement age is fixed at 65 years. Within the Government sector the numbers are higher (62%) than in other sectors • 21% of the CLAs contain clauses that allow the worker to continue working beyond the age of 65. These clauses apply to 32% of the workers, compared to 20% in 1998. • 11% of the CLAs (i.e. 14 CLAs) deviate from the standard retirement age of 65, notably in the military services and the police in demanding jobs (in this case the age for retirement is lower, 55 or 60 years; this is called “functional age-related retirement”). 11% of the workers are covered by stipulations that contain a “deviating” retirement age; this was 16% in the 1998 overview. Portugal 1. Introduction The Lisbon European Council defined an ambitious strategic goal to be achieved by 2010: to make the European Union “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.” 1 Taking into account the phenomenon of an ageing population, which is affecting almost all European Union countries, the participation in the labour market of older workers is essential in order to achieve this objective. Portugal has one of the highest employment rates of older workers 2 in the European Union, having already reached the target rate of 50% defined in the Stockholm Council for 2010. Nonetheless, the demographic evolution in the last decade shows a progressively ageing population, which points to new challenges. Indeed, the Spring 2003 | European Employment Observatory Review 133 Trends • Workers beyond the age of 65 are not covered by a CLA. 7% of the CLAs include stipulations on a different contract for these workers. Changes in the contract can pertain to the period of notification required in the termination of employment or to the expiration of the obligation to pay certain premiums, for example. 4. Evaluation and conclusion Many policies and measures to enhance older workers’ labour market participation have only been implemented recently and many more are still in the stage of proposals and discussions (e.g. the law against age discrimination). Yet the statistics available, including those on stipulations in collective labour agreements, clearly indicate an increasing trend both in labour market participation rates for older workers and in the attention and efforts devoted to the issue of older workers. Notwithstanding this, the growth of participation rates may also bear, to a significant degree, an autonomous character, which reminds us of the way women’s labour market participation has developed over the past years. All in all, a certain optimism seems to be legitimate in the Netherlands with respect to meeting the Stockholm targets but the possible effects of a further economic downturn should and cannot be ignored. Moreover, a balance will have to be struck in the years to come between, on the one hand, further activating policies for older workers and, on the other hand, the protection of the rights, entitlements and health of older persons. Life-course-oriented policies that take into account both the potentials and limits of older workers seem a very promising avenue. Ton Wilthagen ageing of the population has an impact not only on the labour market, but also on the financial sustainability of the pension system, and therefore on one of the main pillars of the so-called European social model. As a result, the question of the activation of older workers has gradually become an important issue of political debate in Portugal. Recent governments have taken some important measures, in order to provide incentives to retain older workers in the labour market. 2. The demographic framework The trend of the last decade (1991-2001) shows an acceleration in the growth of the Portuguese population, which has been especially significant in recent years. Despite the demographic transition 1 Source: Lisbon European Council (2000) – Presidency Conclusions, European Commission 2 In this text, the concept of older workers that will be considered in respect to the individuals with ages between 55 and 64 years old. However, currently, the traditional model of lifecycle, divided into three distinct phases: education, work and reform, do not correspond entirely to the reality. By the way, it was in this context that the World Health Organisation created the concept of active ageing in 1997. In its spirit is implicit that the older individuals must remain, as long as they can, integrated into the labour and social life of the communities in which they live. On the other hand, there is an age group that is frequently not considered nor in the group of the young workers, nor in the one of the oldest: those between 45 and 55 years old. These individuals are sometimes in a hybrid situation, in the sense that, being considered still very young for retirement, they are also already too much old to be considered “normal” workers. However, these workers will be the future workers of 55 and 64 years old and so, when the statistical data allow, they will also be focused in this article.
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Employment & European Social Fund E
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European Employment Observatory Rev
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Table of Contents Policies Overall
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AUSTRIA The programme of the Austri
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FINLAND Essential changes to legisl
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At least one quarter of the members
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in the event of a third and subsequ
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of active labour-market policy, as
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Training Networks Programme The Tra
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Subsequently, the provisions concer
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a strengthening and revitalisation
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workers into the labour market as w
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This reinforced targeting and resul
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BELGIUM The Occupational Immersion
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Agreement on converting 10,000 subs
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outplacement procedure, its duratio
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Integration agreements Another impo
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and local job and volunteering oppo
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FINLAND Preliminary information on
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BELGIUM Harmonisation and simplific
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• Returning migrants Eligibility
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Playing the generation game: an ove
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workers, who have either exited the
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e) Finland’s comprehensive approa
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Compared with the figures for 1997,
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Table 4: Activity quotas by age and
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Table 6: Length of unemployment by
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4Prospects In view of the demograph
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and is exempted from the obligation
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The Government is also addressing t
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permanente, 97-124 Desmet, R. and J
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Table 4: Breakdown by age of older
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Figure 1: Gender gap in the activit
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Figure 5: Effective and statutory r
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3. Recent trends in policies As alr
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3.3 Labour market programmes for el
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Figure 1: Population aged 15 and ov
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Table 3: Labour market transition r
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companies. One of these projects wa
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Table 2: Projection of the economic
Page 81 and 82: Table 8: Numbers entering Early Ret
Page 83 and 84: Figure 1: Rate of access to trainin
Page 85 and 86: Germany 1 Introduction As far back
Page 87 and 88: Figure 3: Potentially economically
Page 89 and 90: Figure 5: Take-up of early-retireme
Page 91 and 92: Figure 8: Average amounts paid unde
Page 93 and 94: 64.5% (Hain/Tautz 2001: 365) withou
Page 95 and 96: Table 6: Collectively agreed workin
Page 97 and 98: Strukturbruch und Arbeitsmark-tentw
Page 99 and 100: men (Figure 3). In clear contrast w
Page 101 and 102: Figure 5: Unemployment rates, males
Page 103 and 104: More recent data, provided by Euros
Page 105 and 106: pensions retracted to normal levels
Page 107 and 108: Ireland 1. Introduction This Paper
Page 109 and 110: Table 3: Labour force trends, 1991-
Page 111 and 112: Table 4: Employment by age across s
Page 113 and 114: Occupational pensions There are als
Page 115 and 116: Italy 1. Introduction The EU offici
Page 117 and 118: Table 7: Activity rates (age 55-64)
Page 119 and 120: Table 10: Forecasts of employment r
Page 121 and 122: should take the territorial imbalan
Page 123 and 124: 2. Statistical Data 5 Number of pen
Page 125 and 126: 4.2 Measures to encourage older wor
Page 127 and 128: 6. Conclusions With regard to keepi
Page 129 and 130: level. No taxes and social premiums
Page 131: edundancy scheme by employers. The
Page 135 and 136: Figure 4: Dependency and ageing ind
Page 137 and 138: Figure 8: Percentage of working age
Page 139 and 140: Figure 11: Average age of workers l
Page 141 and 142: Figure 2: percentage change between
Page 143 and 144: Figure 4: Figure 5: 25 20 15 10 0 -
Page 145 and 146: 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 Figu
Page 147 and 148: However, this measure does not cove
Page 149 and 150: Table 1(a): Employment rate, men, 5
Page 151 and 152: Figure 3(b): Main Source of income
Page 153 and 154: 4. Policies to stimulate active age
Page 155 and 156: Appendix Table A1(a): Participation
Page 157 and 158: Venta • Salg • Verkauf • Pvl
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