octobre 2009 - aafi-afics - UNOG

goal may include reducing the incentives and pressures for early retirement and removing
disincentives to working beyond retirement age.” 18
Reflections on phased or flexible retirement
On the concept of phased or flexible retirement, Professor Robert Hutchins 19 of Cornell University,
in introducing the University’s 2003 study on phased retirement policies, stated that “phased
retirement may be an idea whose time has come”, and also noted that several of the employers
interviewed in the survey saw important advantages in phased retirement, including the following
statements:
• “More work life balance. More focused”;
• We get to maintain a good employee who knows the organization. The older employee
has fewer issues, for example, a higher work ethic, more productive”;
• Maintain client contact or relations; maintain expertise in that area; makes a good
mentor for new attorneys”;
• “[an advantage is] their experience: they know the operation, and you know who you
are getting.”
Phased retirement, better known as flexible retirement in Europe, has continued to gain ground
since Professor Hutchins’ report was published. The United States Department of Labor, Bureau of
Labor Statistics, confirmed that between 1977 and 2007, the number of people ages 65 and older
who hold full or part-time jobs has increased by 101 per cent, from an average of 2.78 million in
1977 to 5.61 million in 2007.
In support of flexible retirement, one United States former Vice-President for Human Resources
wrote:
“The main reason is the desire to remain active and productive. Certainly income is a motive, with
rising health costs and the volatile economic situation, but the wages would really be a fringe
benefit. I just don’t know if sitting at home is all I want to do for the rest of my life.” 20
Flexible retirement options are also being introduced in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom
Department of Work and Pensions undertook research in 2001, followed up in 2006 and 2008, into
employer practices and on the basis of case studies, highlighted the benefits and barriers of
introducing flexible retirement policies. Model policies and toolkits have been prepared by a number
of public services, especially local government entities. Increasingly, private and public sector
employers are developing strategic arguments, business cases, for phased or flexible retirement.
In October 2008, Pierce Noble, a Mercer worldwide partner and senior consultant in the company’s
retirement business, writing in Workforce Management Online, asked why employers should care
about the social good of phased retirement — and he replied to his own question:
- “The pool of skilled, knowledgeable and experienced workers will shrink as the baby boomers
retire, and losing that institutional knowledge, those skills and all of that customer-relations prowess
is always a risk. It may not seem to matter in the short-term, but once the economy rebounds, and it
always does, companies short on talent will be in a competitive bind. So the correct answer
becomes ‘It’s good for business’.”
Some United Nations system organizations, such as WFP and FAO, are about to introduce the
option of phased/flexible retirement as part of their flexible work arrangements...."
AAFI-AFICS will continue to keep members informed of this debate as it develops.
18
Report of the Second World Assembly on Ageing, Madrid, 8-12 April 2002 (United Nations publication, Sales No.
E.02.IV.4), chap. I, resolution 1, annex I, para. 28 (h).
19
Hutchins, Robert, “The Cornell Study of Employer Phased Retirement Policies: A Report on Key Findings”, School of
Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 2003.
20
See Buffalo Business First, 12 December 2008.
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