Trade union strategies for increasing the employment of older workers

In March 2007, the National Trade Union Bloc published a brochure drafted as part of the project on the inclusion of older workers in the labour market. The project was developed jointly with partner organisations from Italy, Spain, Denmark and the UK. The brochure includes examples of good practice, assessments of job requirements in companies from various sectors and outlines potential strategies to increase the employment rate of low-skilled older workers.

Project phases

The project ‘Inclusion of seniors in the labour market’ was conducted under the auspices of the European Commission, bringing together partner organisations from various countries in the research activities. The organisations involved included Exa Team from Italy, the Miguel Escalera Training and Employment Foundation (Fundación Formación y Empleo Miguel Escalera, FOREM) from Spain, the International Centre for Education (Fagligt Internationalt Center, FIC) from Denmark, the Initiative Factory (IF) from the UK and the National Trade Union Bloc (Blocul Naţional Sindical, BNS) from Romania. The group was responsible for carrying out multi-task research in two phases.

The first phase, focusing on desk research, was conducted on the basis of national and international data from Eurostat. It aimed to provide a holistic view of the situation of older workers in the five abovementioned countries in relation to employment and unemployment, pensions and education systems, as well as national policies in the field. One positive outcome of this analysis was the reasonable number of good practice measures evident in public policies for older workers.

The second phase, which involved fieldwork, consisted of interviews with human resource (HR) managers, trade union leaders and older workers in four companies – two companies in the services sector and two in industry – as well as with inactive and unemployed older people. Based on cross-case analysis of answers from each interview, the project partners drafted a national report each on the outcomes.

The cross-border summary, based on national reports, has set the following goals:

• to identify the elements of a common framework for older workers in a European context;

• to organise the information provided by national reports according to priority issues, namely: lifelong learning and educational programmes; professional qualifications demands in companies from various sectors; national policies for older workers; company policies for older workers; vocational training and job provisions for unemployed older workers registered with employment agencies.

Main recommendations and findings

To a large extent, the research project involved consultation with employers and company managers on their attitudes towards older workers and notably on company policies for these workers.

Lack of age-related policies

The findings of the report indicate, in general, that these policies are widely unknown in the countries covered by the project. Quite often, no such strategies are specifically designed for older workers, in other words no differentiated approach or solutions to the specific issues are defined for this category of worker. In today’s labour market, older workers represent a group at risk of individual [dismissals](/search/node/areas OR industrialrelations OR dictionary OR definitions OR dismissals?oldIndex) or collective redundancy at times of economic crisis. Moreover, this category of worker could be the first to become unemployed, to face the threat of not being able to retire or to be denied redundancy pay.

Apart from these negative examples, only a small number of companies proved to have any experience in implementing acceptable policies for older workers, with specific strategies providing adequate working conditions. It is interesting to note that where such conditions exist they involve the receipt of funding or support measures from local authorities.

The research found that all the countries covered by the project lack an age-related policy, based on the natural stages of life. Discrimination of older workers could easily be avoided by means of a system of flexible working hours adjusted to individual requirements.

Good practice examples

The individual requirements of older workers should be taken into account and companies are urged to carefully consider issues affecting senior workers, to identify priorities and devise strategies, providing flexibility and solutions expressly designed for this category of worker.

Examples of good practice identified and recommended in this respect include the setting up of a company training or monitoring system to give older workers the opportunity to play the role of mentors, in charge of or taking part in the process of training certain employees with the aim of passing on their experience to younger workers.

At the same time, mentors could act as senior agents or participants in the implementation of job-retention policies for older workers. This would be a positive step for in-company formal education. (See also the Foundation’s collection of company case studies on the retention of older workers in employment.)

Commentary

At present, the project is highly relevant, as differences have persisted over the past few years between the employment rate of the total population and the rate of employment of older workers. In 2003, for instance, the employment rate of older women stood at 18.5% in Italy, 23.4% in Spain, 33.3% in Romania, 46.4% in the UK and 52.9% in Denmark. The employment rate of older men reached 43.8% in Italy, 43.5% in Romania, 59.3% in Spain and 64.8% in the UK.

Constantin Ciutacu, Institute of National Economy