FRANCE The

Trends
Labour law
One of the most distinctive features of Swedish labour law is that
redundancies occur according to seniority (last-in-first-out, LIFO) 6 .
Seniority is obviously correlated with age. When faced with
redundancies, the unions may agree to surrender their right to LIFO
and it may be used to secure special measures for the older
workforce. Periods of notice previously depended upon age but
since 1997 they vary with seniority. The maximum period according
to law is 6 months and applies for more than 10 years’ seniority.
However, many collective agreements still have an age criteria and
for older private white-collars, one year is the norm. The law does
not stipulate redundancy payments. Collective agreements covering
most of the labour market allow for redundancy payments that, in
combination with unemployment benefit, guarantee roughly 80% of
previous wage for a limited period. There are various age criteria in
these schemes. Generally speaking, one may be eligible after the age
of 40 and larger payments may be made for even older workers.
Education and training
According to the European Labour Force Survey, 10.2% of the 55-
64 year-olds received some form of training in the four-week period
prior to the ELFS interview. Only the UK had a higher figure. There
are no formal restrictions for older workers to participate in
education or training programmes. However, according to
Wadensjö and Sjögren (2000), it may be difficult for the elderly to
obtain the funding to participate. In particular they point out that
one can only obtain student loans for 12 terms. Roughly 7% of those
studying at university level were over 45 years of age. The
corresponding figure for the over 55-year-olds was 1%.
One of the major policy initiatives of the 1990s was the Adult
Education Initiative, which gave basic schooling. Participation in
adult education more than doubled during the 1990s. However, at
the end of the decade, only 0.6% of the population between 55 and
64 participated.
Company best practice
There is no systematic account of company practices to maintain an
active elderly workforce. However, the FöreningsSparbanken 55+
programme could be considered an example of best practice. In the
wake of financial de-regulation there has been considerable
structural change in the banking sector. FöreningsSparbanken is
one of the major Swedish banks and, by 2003, 26% of their
employees were older than 55. In January 2003 the bank introduced
the 55+ programme to keep and develop their older workers. The
programme is summarised in Table 4.
Table 4: F reningsSparbanken 55+ programme
AGE
55+ Medical care On-the-job training
- Exercise during work - Individual development
- Health examinations plan
58+ Reduction in working time Extra days
80% of working time for 90% of wage 3 days free from work
The medical care programme entails an annual health control and
the exercise at work measures are broadly defined and can be, for
example, walking or weight training. One hour per week is allowed
for these activities. The option to reduce working time does not
affect occupational pension rights. The extra days are not to be used
in combination with holidays. The idea is to be able to take a day off
from work now and then to recuperate.
5. Evaluation and conclusions
There can be little doubt that Sweden, comparatively speaking, is
very successful in maintaining participation in the labour force for
workers over the age of 55 as the employment rate for this category
is, by far, the highest in the European Union. It would appear
difficult to attribute this success to any particular single policy.
However, one theme permeates practically every strand of Swedish
labour policy, namely the employment principle. Priority is always
to be given to measures that will place (or keep) people in
employment. Though difficult to document, it would appear that
the employment principle is rooted in society and labour force
generally.
Disability pensioning is low compared to many other countries.
Before the crisis of the early 1990s, unemployment among the
elderly was also relatively low. However, it increased rapidly up to
the mid-1990s and has remained rather high and, taken together
with the large number of active labour market policy measures, is
not significantly lower than in many other countries. The major
current problem is the massive increase in the number of recipients
of sickness benefit who are over-represented among the elderly. A
further concern may be the impact of the pension reform. By
making part-time early pension a less attractive option, it may
become more difficult for workers to work part-time with a parttime
pension. Whether this will induce elderly employees to work
full time is an open question.
Donald Storrie
Bibliography
Palmer E. and Wadensjö E. (2003) “Public Pension Reform and
Contractual Agreements in Sweden – From Defined Benefit to
Defined Contribution” in M. Rein and Winfried Schmael (Eds),
Rethinking the Welfare State: the political economy of pension
reform,forthcoming Edward Elgar.
Wadensjö E. (2002) “Active strategies for older workers in Sweden”
in Maria Jepsen, David Foden and Martin Hutsebaut (eds), Active
strategies for older workers, Brussels: ETUI, 2002.
Wadensjö E. and Sjögren G. (2000) Arbetslinjen för äldre i
praktiken. Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University.
6 Moreover, an employer who is to rehire up to one year after a redundancy, must first offer the job to the workers previously made redundant, in accordance with
seniority.
154 Spring 2003 | European Employment Observatory Review