TAEN Site Blog.

A Sanity Check for Self Employment

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:40:00 +0000

In a media interview last week, I was asked for my views on self employment versus employment for the older jobseeker. I couldn’t help but think that choice of any kind would be a fine thing for many older people out of work.

What I actually said was that self employment was fine but not everyone’s cup of tea.

But before we go overboard about the value of this form of earning a living and its relevance for older people, a reality check is in order.

The incidence of self employment increases with age (see note) but is becoming self employed…

Ending Age Bias in Recruitment

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:08:00 +0000

Looking back on over 40 years of commenting on employment matters, I recall a time when there was little protection against discrimination. Unfairness was rife and covered many areas.

Various bodies, including the then Race Relations Board and the Community Relations Commission drew up ‘equal opportunities statements’ inviting employers to subscribe to them. The Equal Opportunities Commission established in 1975 did likewise in respect of gender discrimination.

No employer wanted to admit being unfair of course so many were happy to subscribe. Even so I have personal memories of arguments.

At some point along the line, age got thrown into…

Osborne's State Pension Age Rise Demands Serious Culture Change in the Workplace

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:56:00 +0000

George Osborne, in his Autumn Statement, has announced that the increase to 67 will now take place between 2026 and 2028. This is eight years earlier than previously planned - the Chancellor claimed the move will save £59 billion.

While there was a degree of inevitability about both his decision and the timing (a day before the public sector pensions strike) it remains to be seen how much it will impact on the actual retirement decisions of people.

Those with savings and good pensions may well do as they do now, and reach their own decisions on retirement…

Employment Rights Reforms Could Put Mandatory Retirement Back onto the Agenda

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:02:00 +0000

The papers today are full of reports that the government is going to back some of Adrian Beecroft’s proposals to curb workers’ rights. The Independent reports that Vince Cable will today unveil a number of measures, including increasing the qualifying period for workers to be able to claim unfair dismissal from one to two years.

Seemingly, the Business Secretary is also set to confirm that the government will introduce ‘protected conversations’ between an employer and a worker to discuss issues such as poor performance without this being used later in any tribunal claim.

The Indy also carries a sceptical…

How Can We Work Longer while Stress and Long Hours Prevail in Britain?s Workplaces?

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:40:00 +0000

With voices increasingly being raised about the need to get rid of the European Working Time Directive, it is timely to look at an object of some beauty, expressed in craftsmanship and underlying noble aspirations.

I refer to the eight hours watch, crafted for the circa 1860 Eight hours movement in decorated silver with the proclamation, “We require eight hours labour, eight hours for our own instruction and eight hours for repose.”

The mantra of ' Live longer, work longer' is well understood and has been part of the received wisdom in the Department for Work…

Snuffing out Growth in Older Apprentices

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:16:00 +0000

The new sculpture of a plumbing apprentice in the forecourt of the London’s Cannon Street station reminds me of the stories of City workers abandoning the slog of stress- soaked trading floors for the personal fulfillment of a centuries old craft. Not any more it seems.

The Government feels it has focused too much on helping older workers to gain skills instead of assisting younger people (under the age of 24) to get their first job, according to a Times article published on 17 November (Apprenticeships to help young people find work).

This followed a speech by Vince…

Beecroft's 'Scrap Unfair Dismissal' Proposals - a Licence for Ageist Employers?

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:11:00 +0000

How odd that the Government should ask a venture capitalist to advise on employment law and how intemperate and ill advised a response Adrian Beecroft appears to have offered in his report, a draft of which is leaked in the Daily Telegraph today.

I know nothing of Mr Beecroft’s background but I wonder how much he really understands the daily practices of people managers. It seems he wants to get rid of the right to bring a claim for unfair dismissal, introducing instead a basic no fault dismissal law in which individuals dismissed through lack of performance would receive…

Housing, Labour Mobility and Hunting for Jobs

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 10:37:00 +0000

Last week’s suggestion by Housing Minister Grant Shapps, that social housing tenants should be able to swap homes to chase employment opportunities, merits comment.

Norman Tebbit’s observation in the 1980s that the unemployed should “…get on their bikes and look for work,” was regarded as likewise heartless and impracticable but I can see some merit in both proposals, notwithstanding their obvious flaws.

In fact, work related housing transfers among social housing tenants have been common for years, despite the diminishing public housing stock. My local council’s free newspaper carries several pages of offered transfers for those eligible to apply.

I…

Labour Market Figures Reveal Disturbing Mind Sets among Some Employers

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:47:00 +0000

For anyone experiencing a longish spell of unemployment, the monthly release of labour force statistics may seem a surrealistic charade. Ignored and unwanted one minute, rocketed to the front of media attention the next.

The worm’s eye view of the individual jobseeker never quite compares with that of the high flying bird in the broadcast media or national press looking down on it all happening. For one, the grubby reality is a mind numbing, demoralising experience of the daily grind of filling in applications for jobs to which, all too often, they don’t even get the courtesy of a reply.

…

On Tennis, Best Employers and Waiting for the State Pension

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 10:00:00 +0000

As I travel to Chicago for the AARP Best Employers for Workers over 50 Award, news of faster raising of the state pension age diverts my attention from the tennis players serving their last aces at Flushing Meadow.

Accelerating the rise of state pension age in present circumstances? John McEnroe’s denunciation of the dodgy line call comes to mind: “You cannot be serious!”

I hasten to add that whilst we in TAEN had been expecting the latest change to state pension age, some will be surprised and skeptical.

But the rise in state pension age…

Flexible Working, Demographics and Cultural Differences

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 16:18:00 +0000

Ralph Atkins and Matt Steinglass in an article in the Financial Times earlier this month on comparative European and US experiences of employment in the downturn (Employment: a Fix that functions, 4 August) raise interesting issues on the link between employment flexibility and economic growth.

TAEN has been pointing to some of the points made by these writers for a number of years. For example, in 2009 we published a booklet, Age Matters in a Downturn, advocating the use of flexible policies to retain skills and knowledge among older employees, in preference to laying them off.

In both this publication and…

The Financial Crisis and the Right to Ask

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:53:00 +0000

There can be no doubt that the global financial crisis is serious. Finance ministers don’t break their summer holidays for nothing, and anyway Flanders and Peston (the BBC’s Economics and Business Editors) think so, so it must be!

It is amusing to recall that Stephanie Flanders’ father was half a piano playing and singing duo in the 50s, Flanders and Swann. I remember that they stamped the boards in such places as the Hammersmith Odeon with a show called At the drop of a hat.

One of their numbers was a song called The Gas Man…

Humble Pie and the Non-Issue of Murdoch's Age

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:06:00 +0000

A funny thing happened to me on my way to the office the other day. BBC Radio York called me to take part in a phone-in discussion on the performance of Rupert Murdoch, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of News Corporation, at the Select Committee hearing which we all watched with interest.

This was not of course an invitation to comment on the ethics of phone hacking, on which I have rather less than zero original opinions to offer anyway, but an invitation to comment on the appropriateness of a large global company being led by an 80…

On Wallace, the Work Programme and Being in Control

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:36:00 +0000

Watching telly with the kids I sometimes find myself irreverently drawing on cartoon philosophy. The wisdom of Homer Simpson may not be everyone’s cup of tea at a policy seminar or funeral, but their thoughts do cross one’s mind.

In this spirit of irreverence, I could not help wondering what Wallace (not that Wallis – the one made of plasticine ) would have said about events in the news, noting the appearance of certain persons before a parliamentary select committee this afternoon.

“Don’t worry Gromit, everything is under control!” he calls out in The Wrong Trousers,…

Addressing the Ghost at the Bargaining Table

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 13:23:00 +0000

Last week’s 24 hour walk out by teachers, lecturers and civil servants has raised the stakes in the public sector pensions dispute, though not necessarily brought a solution any closer. Mark Serwotka, leader of the PCS, has promised that the protesting will continue.

This is not surprising - even though civil servants are not in the same militancy league as transport workers, they have after all, been here before.

But it is startling to see that other professional workers long associated with morally eschewing the strike weapon as an affront to their professional ethic, have been moved to take strike…

Reality Checks in the Looming Public Sector Pensions Dispute

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 17:51:00 +0000

Danny Alexander the Chief Secretary to the Treasury will comment today on the Government’s intention to reform public sector pensions in light of the planned industrial action by some of the public sector unions. Linking normal retirement ages (they can’t be mandatory now) to the rising state pension age will be his main point.

The unions, supposedly, will regard his intervention as “inflammatory.” Both sides will be seeking the moral high-ground in arguments playing out in coming weeks. These are by no means one sided, but some reality checks are in order.

First consider the argument that as people live…

Making Internships Age Neutral

Thu, 05 May 2011 09:18:00 +0000

With all the recent heated talk about internships, you might be pardoned for thinking the issue has just emerged from the chrysalis into the spring sunshine. In fact interns themselves have been around for some time.

Much of the talk assumes that internships are unpaid, though this is not always the case. Young graduates with fortunate backgrounds volunteer their services, free of charge, as MPs’ assistants or in hundreds of other roles where their research talents can be put to use.

Practices vary - whilst some organisations offer interns a salary or stipend, others expect them to work without pay. The…

They Think It's All Over....

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 17:08:00 +0000

Finally, after all the sound and fury, the default retirement age is no more. Well, that’s not entirely true – the phasing out starts today. Anyone who has already been given notice of compulsory retirement will have to go through with the procedure.

This of course includes lodging a request to continue working on beyond 65 if that is the wish of the individual. The employer continues in the driving seat a little longer in such cases and can reject all or none of such requests, according to his or her inclination.

What a thing is ‘the…

The Looming Pensions Crisis and the Necessity of Work

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 12:22:00 +0000

From the OECD comes a new report in the tradition of its seminal series Live Longer, Work Longer? which highlighted the necessity for policies to extend working lives in line with population changes across the developed world.

The new report Pensions at a Glance 2011 highlights the growing gap between our pension provision and life expectancy. It says that by 2050 the average pensionable age in OECD countries will reach 65 for both sexes (an increase of about 1.5 years for men and 2.5 years for women) while life expectancy is rising faster,…

Saying 'Boo' to the Ides of March

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 12:16:00 +0000

As a long aspiring Thespian I missed my chance yesterday. Works Management, a magazine for managers in manufacturing industry, published an article in which Gareth Jenkins, Managing Director of FSG Tool & Die in Llantrisant near Caerphilly, warned that the end of the default retirement age was like a “hand grenade on the table creating confusion and uncertainty”.

He went on:“It's created a situation where you might have a long service employee who feels desperate to work for financial reasons, but he may not be fit enough. You could have a guy who's worked for 40…