Working and ageing - Cedefop - Europa

CHAPTER 8
Policy, research and practice: supporting longer careers for baby-boomers 151
this and future high old-age dependency. Incentives for taking up the old age
pension usually by 63, have left low employment numbers of 65-69 year olds.
Recommended is an increase in the maximum retirement age to 65,
improvement of incentives to stay employed, lower accrual rates during
unemployment and other periods of non-work. Other recommendations are
that employers be encouraged to hire and retain older workers, and active
labour programmes and vocational rehabilitation be used to change attitudes
of older workers (OECD, 2010a).
With only 53% of over 50s in employment, the French government has
restricted access to early retirement schemes, introduced bonuses for those
working beyond standard retirement age, and raised the age of access to
pensions after long-term unemployment. In 2001, a law against discrimination
in employment, including age discrimination was passed and in 2005, a social
cohesion plan and health-at-work plan were put in place (OECD, 2005a;
2005b).
With many workers having left the country in the early 1990s, Romania
faces an imminent workforce shortfall. There has been an uneasy shift by
older workers from government to private employment. Interestingly in
Romania, with life expectancy for men at 69.2 (OECD, 2010d, p. 27) the
mandatory retirement age is to be implemented gradually, and has been
increased to 65 years for men, 62 for women. Surveys have indicated that
older workers were less willing to learn new skills, or to take initiative and were
less productive than younger workers. In Romania, older workers in Stateowned
businesses have access to retraining options. The government is
therefore encouraging workers who had migrated to return and encouraging
older workers to invest in new skills although this is counterbalanced by there
still being a supply of younger workers (Atwater and Pop, 2008, p. 1-2).
In Denmark from the late 1990s, an active labour-market model is combined
with high mobility between jobs and a comprehensive safety net for the
unemployed. Flexibility is referred to as ʻmeaning mechanisms of adjustment
in the labour marketʼ leading to change if shocks occur, and in contrast to
public regulation (Bredgaard et al., 2005, p. 8). This ʻflexicurityʼ model brings
together the free market economy and social security (Bredgaard et al., 2005,
p. 9). Flexicurity can be defined as a policy strategy to improve, at the same
time and deliberately, flexibility of labour markets, work organisations and
labour relations; and employment and income security ( 38 ).
( 38 ) http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=102&langId=en.