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Trends Though it was originally meant to run only to the end of 1996, the scheme has been reintroduced on an annual basis ever since. In 2001, it was opened up to employees born in 1942 or before with a minimum of 160 quarters of contributions. Though it has been highly successful, the scheme should nonetheless completely disappear at the end of 2003, since all those involved will have reached the age of 60 and will hence be of pensionable age. • End of Career Leave (Congé de fin d’activité or CFA). This scheme was created in 1997 for the three classes of civil servants (state, local and health-service). It enables workers satisfying certain age and contributions criteria to leave their employment before the age of 60. • The new Designated Employee Early Retirement Scheme (le nouveau dispositif de cessation anticipée d’activité de certains travailleurs salariés or CATS). This scheme, in force since February 2000, applies only to companies in sub-sectors for which a national agreement has been signed. 10 Set at a maximum of five years, the agreement can cover only those workers aged over 55 who have performed 15 years of shift or production-line work,have worked 200 nights or more per year for 15 years, were registered as disabled workers at the date of the sub-sector agreement and have at least ten years’ social security contributions. • Early Retirement for Asbestos Workers (la cessation anticipée d’activité des travailleurs de l’amiante or CAATA). This scheme relates to employees in establishments where materials containing asbestos are produced, in ports (dockers and other staff handling asbestos) and in naval building and repair establishments. 11 Secondly, there are those schemes which allow for a progressive cessation of work, the main one being the Phased-In Early Retirement scheme (Préretraite progressive or PRP). This may be accessed by companies engaged in a process of staff reduction to enable them to avoid redundancies or companies wishing to recruit. Since 1997, companies which recruit have been required to have among their new recruits a minimum proportion of so-called priority groups (jobseekers, young people etc.). Companies have to pay a compulsory financial contribution to the PRP scheme, 12 though there are variable levels of contribution, depending on the size of the enterprise and, where there is recruitment, on the commitment made in terms of recruiting from priority groups. Nevertheless, though the number of early retirees has fallen regularly since 1998 (at least those covered by public schemes13 ), the number of older unemployed seems to have increased: in 2001, and for the first time since 1993, 14 more workers aged between 55 and 59 claimed unemployment benefit than took public early retirement. Current schemes in favour of the older unemployed, of which there are three, continue to encourage inactivity beyond the age of 55: • either in the form of the Unemployment Allowance for Older Persons (Allocation chômeurs âgés or ACA), which is payable to employees aged under 60 with forty years of contributions, who have lost their employment, or • the Special Waiting Allowance (Allocation spécifique d’attente or ASA) which relates to unemployed workers aged under 60 with forty years’ contributions or more receiving either the Special Supplementary Benefit (Allocation de solidarité spécifique or ASS) or Income Support (Revenu minimum d’insertion or RMI); • or in the form of dispensation from the need to look for work (dispense de recherche d’emploi or DRE): this concerns jobseekers aged over 571 /2 who are in receipt of unemployment insurance payments and, since 1999, jobseekers aged over 55 who are in receipt of unemployment insurance payments and who have made forty years of contributions, together with those who receive no unemployment allowance; the change to the rules on DRE in June 1999 had the effect of attracting the eligible jobseekers to it: hence between 1998 and 1999 the annual inflow into DRE increased by 43%. Overall, if from the end of the 1970s onwards, the date for the end of working life became an instrument of employment policy, we can see that the second half of the 1990s, together with the early years of the twenty-first century have been characterised by somewhat opposing tendencies: on the one hand, the public authorities have sought to reduce the measures for access to early retirement by decreasing the levels of funding (ASFNE, ARPE, PRP etc.), on the other, new schemes have appeared (CATS, CFA) or have been extended (ARPE) and access to dispensation from job-seeking for older unemployed persons has become more open. Lastly, the Delalande contribution, 15 which has for many years been criticised for its unintended negative effects on the recruitment of workers over 50, 16 still remains in force. In 2001, for example, among persons recruited within the last twelve months, only 7% were aged over 50 – whereas the 50-64 age group represents 22% of the occupied labour force – and this percentage has barely changed in 10 years (the figure was 5% in 1991). We can confidently attribute this weak dynamism in the “over-fifties” labour market in part to the consequences of this contribution, even if age has recently17 come to figure as a criterion in anti-discrimination legislation (which is new in French law), though this is guided by the concern to conform to European legal requirements. Current debates In these early months of 2003, the current debates are concerned exclusively with protecting our pension system. Beyond the debate on the establishment of a system based on collective funding, which does not, on the face of it, seem as though it will meet with Government approval, there is a strong temptation to propose an extension of the period of required contributions, 18 as in 1993 (this is the position currently advocated by the employers’ federation, MEDEF). There is, admittedly, some justification for this in the simulations carried out by 10 It relates, therefore, mainly to industrial sub-sectors. 11 The establishments for which this scheme is available are listed in a Government decree. 12 Except in the case of companies signing re-recruitment agreements, on condition that they have at least 250 employees and commit themselves to recruiting 90% from the priority groups. 13 Alongside the public schemes, company early retirement schemes also exist. These are generally implemented in large companies. 14 With the exception of 1995, when the number of unemployed aged 55 and over was also higher. 15 It has to be noted that this contribution, though it was originally intended to protect employees aged 50 and over from redundancy and to encourage companies to implement early retirement, has, by financially penalising companies, been a real obstacle to the employment of the over-50s and has contributed to sidelining them, as companies have kept from recruiting jobseekers over 45. Moreover, the financial penalty was in fact doubled under the Jospin Government. 16 Jean Pisani-Ferry, “Plein Emploi”, Conseil d’analyse économique, December 2000. 17 By the law of 16 November 2001 on the prevention of discrimination. 18 With the public sector (which has remained at a requirement of 37.5 contribution years before the employee is entitled to a pension) being brought into line with the private. 82 Spring 2003 | European Employment Observatory Review
Figure 1: Rate of access to training by age in% 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 =60 Spring 2003 | European Employment Observatory Review 83 Trends Source: Survey, “Formation continue 2000”; graph by DARES, statistical office of the Ministry of Employment and Solidarity. Moreover, positive measures for the management of the final years of employment, such as phased-in early retirement, have been outcompeted by the total early retirement schemes that are still in force, and have not, as a result, developed as expected. Admittedly, awareness has been growing gradually and, in this connection, the report by B. Quintreau was the first to raise the alarm and show the urgent need to establish means for workers aged 55 and over to return to employment. Various proposals have been formulated to this end: apart from a reduction in the public funds allocated for early retirement, which has been going on for some years, 23 only managerial planning measures have, for the moment, captured the attention of the authorities: a company’s access to the CATS scheme is conditional on the establishment of a GPEC24 ; similarly, a new scheme for advice provision proposed by the Ministry of Social Affairs, relates exclusively to the GPEC, thus promoting thinking on the age pyramid. We must note also that, driven by European programmes, thinking is ongoing in the regions, as is illustrated by the experiments currently being carried out in Poitou-Charentes, the Pays de la Loire or in Aquitaine. 25 Where companies are concerned, only the first fumbling attempts have been made to confront the problem, as is attested by the DARES study carried out in 2001 in 3,000 private companies with 10 or more employees. “In almost one company in two, the executive responsible has never given any thought to the question of an ageing population.” Similarly, INSEE, in its social data survey 2002-3 found that only one managing director in five was anticipating largescale retirements from 2006 onwards. It emerges from this that human resources policies in French companies are not greatly 19 The “Destinie” micro-simulation model. 20 José Bardaji, “Le réforme des retraites du régime général de 1999: quel impact sur les taux d’activité des 60-64 ans?”, INSEE no. 21/G211, October 2001. 21 Among other things, to satisfy European objectives within the framework of the commitments made by France. 22 In 1999 the present writer produced the first article on this subject in the European Employment Observatory’s “Trends” Report, at which time there was a paucity of literature on this topic in France, but this is not by any means the case today. 23 504 million euro in 2002, as against 2,353.44 million euro in 1996, which is to say one quarter of the previous expenditure. 24 Gestion prévisionnelle des emplois et des compétences (Forward Employment and Skills Planning). 25 In Poitou-Charentes, the CISTE (Carrefour pour l’Innovation Sociale, le Travail et l’Emploi), which brings together the regional social partners within a research group, is running an EQUAL project aimed at implementing human resources management measures that will promote the continued working or enhanced employability of older workers who have, in spite of their extensive experience, been marginalised in the labour market. In the Pays de Loire, also within the framework of an EQUAL project, an inter-institutional project group has been formed to look into demographic projections by occupation and sector, and the situation of the over-fifties in relation to continuing training, early retirement, and health issues for older workers etc. In Aquitaine, the Regional Council has, as part of a regional planning initiative, undertaken a special examination of the issue of ageing.
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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
Page 17 and 18:
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
Page 25 and 26:
This reinforced targeting and resul
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BELGIUM The Occupational Immersion
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Agreement on converting 10,000 subs
Page 31 and 32: outplacement procedure, its duratio
Page 33 and 34: Integration agreements Another impo
Page 35 and 36: and local job and volunteering oppo
Page 37 and 38: FINLAND Preliminary information on
Page 39 and 40: BELGIUM Harmonisation and simplific
Page 41 and 42: • Returning migrants Eligibility
Page 43 and 44: Playing the generation game: an ove
Page 45 and 46: workers, who have either exited the
Page 47 and 48: e) Finland’s comprehensive approa
Page 49 and 50: Compared with the figures for 1997,
Page 51 and 52: Table 4: Activity quotas by age and
Page 53 and 54: Table 6: Length of unemployment by
Page 55 and 56: 4Prospects In view of the demograph
Page 57 and 58: and is exempted from the obligation
Page 59 and 60: The Government is also addressing t
Page 61 and 62: permanente, 97-124 Desmet, R. and J
Page 63 and 64: Table 4: Breakdown by age of older
Page 65 and 66: Figure 1: Gender gap in the activit
Page 67 and 68: Figure 5: Effective and statutory r
Page 69 and 70: 3. Recent trends in policies As alr
Page 71 and 72: 3.3 Labour market programmes for el
Page 73 and 74: Figure 1: Population aged 15 and ov
Page 75 and 76: Table 3: Labour market transition r
Page 77 and 78: companies. One of these projects wa
Page 79 and 80: Table 2: Projection of the economic
Page 81: Table 8: Numbers entering Early Ret
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 and 132: edundancy scheme by employers. The
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uittreding: early retirement) schem
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Figure 4: Dependency and ageing ind
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Figure 8: Percentage of working age
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Figure 11: Average age of workers l
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Figure 2: percentage change between
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Figure 4: Figure 5: 25 20 15 10 0 -
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100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 Figu
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However, this measure does not cove
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Table 1(a): Employment rate, men, 5
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Figure 3(b): Main Source of income
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4. Policies to stimulate active age
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Appendix Table A1(a): Participation
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Venta • Salg • Verkauf • Pvl
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