I have been in Brussels this week, by coincidence just as the European premiers have been descending for the European Summit. Not that our orbits crossed – I have been at Age Platform Europe’s Employment Experts Group discussing a range of issues affecting the employment of older workers throughout Europe.
Employment of mature workers is of course an issue of growing interest to political leaders too. Now ten years old, Age Platform Europe is lobbying to get the interests of older people properly reflected in the new economic plan that will be used to gauge and stimulate progress over the next decade.
The name of the game is the Europe 2020 strategy. In classic Euro-speak language, it aims to establish a social market economy by 2020. One element of this is a target employment rate of 75 per cent of the working age population across the European Union. Bearing in mind that only the Scandinavian countries and Britain are within shouting distance of this, it is an ambitious plan.
It also aims to move towards the eradication of poverty – though not all poverty, just 25 per cent of it! EU Commission realism is spread with all the evenness of cold butter, it occurs to me!
The Expert Group is concerned to see stronger targets on the employment of older workers, a new approach to acquiring skills throughout working life, support for maintaining health and well being at work and measures to help older workers who care for dependants.
But summit declarations do not just happen. This is a process that has been going on for many months and we can already see that some of our ideas have been accepted and will be reflected in the final strategy.
A series of ‘flagships’ are provided for in the strategy. One of these is on the digital agenda and includes helping to ingrain digital literacy and accessibility including for older people.
The Platform and speakers in attendance congratulate the Experts Group on making suggestions at earlier meetings which have now found their way into the likely final statement.
Retirement at 60 or less is still common in a number of EU countries, but the winds of change are blowing. As if to illustrate the changing shape of things, we have the announcement of France’s standard retirement age moving from 60 to 62. The move is billed as an attempt to reduce the French pension costs and public borrowing.
Sixty is officially early retirement but it is so widely used by men and women it is the standard retirement age. Sixty-two will be the new yardstick but to get full pension the French will have to work to 67.
To retire early one has to have worked for 40.5 years. The new reforms will require 41.5 years of service. But the system is complex and uneven. Public sector workers retire on 75 per cent of their final salary.
These changes will meet with strong opposition from the unions as the Government moves towards implementation later in the year. I can’t help compare their response to the UK situation where the idea of moving state pension age up to 66 appears to have raised barely a whisper from the unions so far.
Both employers and unions, it seems, accept in principle that people in arduous jobs should be able to claim their pensions earlier. So far so good, but there have been long and so far unfruitful negotiations on the precise definition of how this early pension rule should apply. The Government will probably have to step in and lay down some rules.
But another innovation in the French system from January this year merits attention. High and widespread unemployment among ‘seniors’ is being taken more seriously. Employers now have to adopt collective agreements or action plans whose aim is to keep seniors in work or attract more to the organisation.
Measures can include schemes of lifelong learning, flexible retirement and flexible forms of working. Six sorts of measures are specified in total, which can (or should) be included in the plan. Measures must include provision for retention of older employees or hiring more of them
Our French Expert Group member tells us that despite the financial crisis, the relative growth of senior unemployment had ceased.
Additionally, as part of the January reforms, French employees can request a competency assessment once they reach 45 years old. The aim is to help them think about “the second part of their career,” as our speaker put it.
The default retirement age in France is 70, incidentally. It seems that taking all into consideration, the French are in the process of stealing a march on the UK.