Third Age Employment Network - May 2005

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Archived News May 2005

Week Starting : 30th May

NHS Targeting Older Recruits

NHS Trusts are being urged to tackle their staffing problems by actively seeking to recruit older workers. It is part of a new campaign being run by NHS Employers to highlight the essential role that older people will play in its future workforce.

Explaining the campaign, Carole Smith of NHS Employers said, “Previously the NHS has always relied on recruiting people straight from school or further education but that is becoming more difficult to do.

We need to be employing more staff for the NHS but with the post-war ‘baby boom’ generation reaching their 50s and a declining birth rate, employers are going to have to think about how they both attract older workers and retain them.

Older people have lots of life and work experience and are therefore particularly well suited for employment in the NHS. We want to encourage them to join the NHS and give them the support to remain there.

Many older people like to have a good work-life balance and may want to work part-time but they also want to be given new opportunities and challenges.”

2007: European Year of Equal Opportunities For All

This week the EU Commission announced it is designating 2007 as ‘European Year of Equal Opportunities for All’ as part of a concerted effort to promote equality and non-discrimination in the EU.

The European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities said Europe must work towards real equality in practice and that a new drive is needed to ensure the full application of EU anti-discrimination legislation, which has encountered too many obstacles and delays. He pledged that fundamental rights, non-discrimination and equal opportunities will remain key priorities for the European Commission.

A feasibility study will be set-up to look at possible new measures to complement existing EU anti-discrimination legislation and a high-level advisory board is being established to look at the social and labour market integration of minorities.

Nationwide Allowing Employees To Work On Till 75.

The Nationwide Building Society has announced it will allow its employees to work on till they’re 75 if they want to do so.

The Nationwide were one of the first companies to introduce flexible retirement. Back in 2001, they allowed employees to work on till 70 and now they are extending this policy to allow those people who want to, to work till they’re 75. Those who do decide to work on will be entitled to their existing benefits.

Explaining the move, Nationwide’s personnel and development director said, “ We have found that older employees help increase the levels of satisfaction amongst our customers. We also know that some employees wish to continue working beyond normal retirement age, so we have enhanced our policies to support those employees, giving them more choice over when they want to retire.”

Job Security Fears & Warnings Grow

Confidence in job security amongst UK workers has dropped in recent months. The Career Confidence Index from RightCoutts found that employees based in the UK remain the most uncertain in a global poll on job security. Asked how they view the possibility of being made redundant in the coming year, 29% of a representative group of full-time UK employees felt it was ‘very likely’. This had increased from 27.5% in the previous poll conducted 8 months ago.

The poll found that fears about job security were highest in the UK – no doubt fuelled by a string of recent announcements of job losses and plant closures. However, confidence about getting back into work following redundancy was also amongst the highest in the UK with just under 20% feeling it would be easy to find a new job, compared with less than 4% of workers surveyed in Germany.

Despite Gershon, Civil Service Numbers Still Rising

Despite staff cut-backs inspired the Gershon report, the number of civil servants increased in the last 3 months of 2004 by 1,000 compared with the same period in 2003 - to stand at 565,000. According to the Office of National Statistics, civil service numbers have grown every year since 1999, increasing by 13% (66,000) since then.

Week starting 23rd May

Employment Tribunal Cases Fall By Nearly A Quarter

Last year the number of employment tribunal cases brought against employers fell by nearly a quarter (24%). They were down from over 127 thousand in 2003 to just under 98 thousand in 2004.

Employment lawyers say the reduction is largely due to the introduction last October of the new Dispute Resolution Regulations. Under which, all employers and employees must follow a minimum three-step disciplinary and grievance procedure in the event of a workplace dispute.

It does appear the regulations are being successful in increasing the number of disputes that are settled before reaching the tribunal stage – just as the Government and ACAS hoped.

However, lawyers are cautioning that the reduction in tribunal cases may be short-lived. They are expecting the number to rise again next year – once the age discrimination regulations are implemented.

Top 10 Web Recruitment Sites

According to information from Hitwise, the most visited UK recruitment sites last week were :-

Jobcentre Plus
Jobsite
Reed.co.uk
Total Jobs
Fish4 Jobs
Monster.co.uk
NHS-Careers
TES Jobs
Guardian Unlimited Jobs
eteach.com

No data unfortunately on the age break-down of jobseekers visiting those sites or on the relative success rates between applicants from different age cohorts, in getting called for interview by the recruiters in question.

Shortage of Trained Gardeners Threatens Historic Parks

A shortage of trained gardeners could lead to many of Britain’s historic parks being grassed over. The warning has come from the director-general of the Royal Horticultural Society. Speaking at the Chelsea Flower show he said, “There’s a skills problem across the board, whether its finding someone to work in your back garden or to tend historic and botanical gardens.”

Public Accounts Committee Response Lacks Real Punch

Earlier this week, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee published a response to the National Audit Office report on the Government’s welfare-to-work programmes for the over 50s. Their response lacked any real punch, nevertheless they came up with a number of conclusions and recommendations :-

Too many people (2.7 million) between 50 and state pension age are unemployed or inactive – which is a waste of skills, experience and a loss to the economy.
It would be a false economy for Jobcentre Plus to cut back on its 30,000 Personal Advisers in its current downsizing exercise. The likely effect would be to delay the return to work of its clients and increase benefit expenditure.
Subject to the outcome of the current Pathways to Work pilots (for IB claimants) and a thorough analysis of likely costs and savings, the Department should press ahead with rolling it out.
Jobcentre Plus and the Learning & Skills Council should both contract for employment and training services from the same local providers.
Jobcentre Plus and Regional Development Agencies should make better use of performance targets to help focus activity on the over 50s.
The DWP should do a better job of monitoring the outcomes and costs of New Deal 50+.
All major employment programmes should be evaluated to determine their net economic effect and their continuing value for money.

To read TAEN’s press release click here..

Adult Learner’s Week Sees Threat To Adult Learning

This week is Adult Learner’s Week. But it threatens to be overshadowed by a row over funding for adult learning in the 05/06 academic year. Further Education (FE) Colleges have warned that 200,000 places on adult education and training courses could be lost from next September.

There seem to be several reasons. The first is that the Learning & Skills Council (LSC) appears to be capping the funding for such courses at this year’s level – with no inflationary element built in. Secondly, the LSC believes FE Colleges should make-up the shortfall by charging Learners more for their courses. Finally, the LSC is diverting resources to fund the new universal adult entitlement to a first NVQ level 2 which is being rolled out from September and also to teenagers who are failing at school.

Alan Tuckett, director of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE), said that colleges around the country are receiving invitations from their local LSCs to narrow provision to areas of adult learning that count towards their (the LSCs) national targets.

Further Decline in Final Salary Pension Schemes

According to a new survey the decline of final salary pension schemes continues.
Only 35% of UK organisations now offer such schemes to their workers – compared with 40% in 2004 – and of those that still do, nearly half are now closed to new employees.

Of the employers surveyed by the financial advisers Origen, less than one in seven thought their employees put a high value on the workplace pensions they offer. Perhaps that’s a reflection of the age profile of their employees ?

Week Starting 16th May

Age Legislation : Employer Readiness Campaign Begins

Amidst continuing concerns that the majority of employers have not begun to prepare for next year’s age discrimination regulations, a new campaign has been launched to encourage them to start their preparations – sooner rather than later.

The Age Partnership Group’s ‘Get Ready’ campaign started this week with a promotional newsletter which is being distributed to 1.4 million employers throughout England, Scotland & Wales over the next month. The newsletter invites recipients to order a free ‘personnel organiser’, which is designed to encourage businesses to prepare for new age legislation by developing best practice and creating an age diverse workforce.

The Age Partnership Group (APG) is made up of three separate partnerships in England, Scotland and Wales. All three consist of a range of organisations representing small, medium and large employers, local authorities, trade unions, training organisations, HR and personnel managers, pensions organisations and government departments. The APG is funded and co-ordinated by the DWP.

Employers wishing to order the ‘Be Ready’ products, should call the APG Product orderline on 0845 715 2000 or email apg@isky.co.uk .

As of next week, you will also be able to view the products on the APG website at www.agepositive.gov.uk/agepartnershipgroup . This will include an e-mail address for any enquiries.

Turner Gives Thumbs Down To A Citizen’s Pension

Although the Pension Commission won’t be submitting its final report till the Autumn, its chairman Adair Turner has already said he is ‘very wary’ about adopting a Citizen’s Pension approach to defusing the pensions crisis.

The idea of replacing the UK’s current complicated and increasingly means-tested state pension scheme with a single, simple basic state pension has been supported by a growing number of organisations. These include both the National Association of Pension Funds and the Pensions Policy Institute – as well as the Liberal Democrats and TAEN. Advocates say a Citizen’s Pension also addresses the pensions’ disadvantage faced by so many women because of their often fractured work record and lower incomes throughout their working lives.

Adair Turner told the Financial Times that he thought a Citizen’s Pension approach was very attractive and an incredibly useful challenge for the debate. He said that “If life was costless one would have a state pension at the level of the minimum income guarantee (the means-tested minimum of £105 per week), that was going up with earnings. The trouble with that is that you either have to have higher taxes or a higher (state) pension age.”

He added that the state had an interest not just in providing a basic state pension to prevent poverty but in a system that strongly compelled people to make some provision that would relate their final pension to earnings.

It seems the Pensions Commission has still to make up its mind whether to recommend more compulsion or a revived voluntary system of savings for retirement.

Report Recommends Ways To Increase Minority Ethnic Employment

In December’s 2004 Pre-Budget Report, Gordon Brown asked the National Employment Panel (NEP) to recommend measures to increase the employment, self employment and business growth of ethnic minorities and faith groups. Their newly published report Enterprising People, Enterprising Places comes up with 10 recommendations to improve the employment rates of ethnic minorities, including:-

Better targeting of resources to 5 cities where 64% of the UK’s ethnic minorities live (London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leicester and Leeds/Bradford).
An integrated, employer-led employment and skills framework in each of those 5 cities.
Outreach support focused on those people of minority ethnic origin currently excluded from the labour market (including those who are economically inactive and/or over 50).
ESOL provision (English for speakers of other languages) should be better targeted through the learning & Skills Council.
Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) for entrepreneurship should be established to develop talent and entrepreneurship of ethnic minority communities.

Jeremy Anderson, the Chair of the National Employment Panel’s Steering Group said:

“Today there is a 15 percent gap between the employment rate of ethnic minorities and the overall population. Our report, ‘Enterprising People, Enterprising Places’ makes clear that closing this gap is not simply a matter of fairness or social justice; it is central to the future productivity and growth of our major economic centres. With political and business leadership, determination and creativity, we believe that this can – and should – be achieved within the next decade.”

The Government is now working to develop proposals for implementing the report’s main recommendations. Its looking to build on existing programmes such as New Deal, Employment Zones and Action Teams which it says have helped over 155,000 ethnic minority people into jobs.

First Session Of New Parliament Critical For TAEN Agenda

The Queen’s Speech has set out the new Government’s legislative programme for the next 18 months. It may not have contained many surprises but it underlined just how critical this first session of the new Parliament is going to be to TAEN’s age and employment, lifelong learning and skills agenda.

New legislation will be introduced covering: age discrimination; education and training; Pension and Incapacity Benefit reform; Extension of flexible working rights;
introduction of a public sector ‘gender duty’; the reintroduction of the Bill setting up the new Commission on Equality and Human Rights. Put together these measures will profoundly influence the labour market opportunities and choices available to people as they get older and proceed through their working lives.

Sainsburys Targets Over 50s For Jobs

The supermarket chain Sainsbury’s is looking to recruit 10,000 mature workers by Christmas.

Furthermore it is offering flexible working contracts which it says will enable candidates to choose working hours which suit their lifestyles. The options include ‘term-time’ contracts which allow workers to enjoy their retirement and spend time with their families during school holidays.

Sainsbury’s is keen to stress that the vacancies cover a number of areas across the stores – including personnel and customer service.

Their recruitment campaign launches in June – and will see advertisements appear in publications and other media outlets used by the over-50s, including websites such as TAEN member Fiftyon (www.fiftyon.co.uk).

Employment Figures : Employment Rate Steady But Vacancies Fall

This month’s UK employment figures show that the employment rate has stayed steady although there are more people in employment. The unemployment rate is down, there are fewer unemployed people, the claimant count has increased, the number of job vacancies is down and number of economically inactive people has increased slightly.

According to the Office of National Statistics :-

The employment rate for people of working age was 74.9 per cent for the three months ending in March 2005, unchanged from the previous quarter and on the year.

The number of people in employment increased by 87,000 over the quarter and by 183,000 over the year, to reach 28.61 million.

The unemployment rate was 4.7 per cent, down 0.1 percentage point both from the previous quarter and over the year. The number of unemployed people fell by 15,000 over the quarter and by 23,000 over the year, to reach 1.40 million.

The claimant count increased by 8,100 to 839,400 in April 2005.

The inactivity rate for people of working age was 21.4 per cent for the three months ending in March 2005, up slightly from the previous quarter. The number of economically inactive people of working age rose by 14,000, to reach 7.86 million.

The average number of job vacancies for the three months to April 2005 was 628,900. This was down 26,100 on the previous quarter but up 5,600 over the year.

The redundancy rate for the three months to March 2005 was 5.4 per 1,000 employees, down 0.5 on the previous quarter.

Week Starting 9th May

Nearly One in Two Employers Expecting To Cut Staff Numbers

After a steady stream of bad news about companies laying off workers, it seems worse could be to come. The latest quarterly Labour Market Outlook from the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) reveals that many UK employers have become more pessimistic about employment prospects.

Nearly half (45%) of the 1,300 organisations surveyed were predicting a fall in their staff numbers over the next 12 months. Only 22% expect to be employing more workers by Spring 2006.

In the short-term however the recruitment news is brighter - four out of ten of those surveyed said they will be stepping up recruitment in the next 3 months.

DTI’s Pointless Re-branding Reversed

The post-election decision to re-brand the Department of Trade and Industry as the Department of Productivity, Energy and Industry has been reversed – after just one week. Alan Johnson the new Secretary of State decided he didn’t like the pointless re-branding, neither did anyone else, so he has decided to revert to the DTI acronym.

Victory for a powerful Cabinet Minister over a weakened Prime Minister? A victory for common-sense? Proof that Tony Blair is really listening?

Whichever it is, lets hope it marks the end of re-branding for the sake of it. The speedy reversal decision should save the taxpayer a small fortune in not having to reprint all the stationery, publications, forms and directories and alter the websites. Only the printers and webmasters will shed a tear at the loss of business. The re-branding & PR consultants will have already invoiced for their services.

However, before we get carried – although the DTI acronym is to remain, Patricia Hewitt (Johnson’s predecessor at the DTI) told Radio 4s Today programme the full name could still be changed - to the Department of Technology and Industry.

Blunkett Prepared To Review State Pension Age

His predecessors at the DWP said they had no intention of raising state pension age, but in his first speech as Work & Pensions Secretary this week, David Blunkett warned workers they can no longer expect to ‘hang up their boots’ when they reach 65. He told the National Association of Pension Funds’ annual conference that that perception had to change.

“When the pension system was set up,” he said, “there were 10 people in work for every one in retirement. We are now down to a ratio of four to one, and in the next 50 years that will be down to two to one.

We have got to break down the barriers between our working time and our retirement.”

He went on to say that a scheme needs to be introduced which allows people to come back to work after breaks away. And that people need to be encouraged to stay on at work part-time and do part-time work when retired. What one academic elsewhere this week called ‘blended-retirement’.

If he wants to encourage more people to work on after the present state pension age, the first thing he should do is reverse the national default retirement age decision announced last December.

Government Fighting Rearguard Action To Keep WTD Opt-Out

The new Government has said it will fight to retain the UK’s opt-out of the Working Time Directive – despite the decision of the European Parliament that it should be ended in 3 years time. A decision supported by Labour’s own MEPs – much to the Government’s embarrassment.

UK employers’ organisations and Conservative party spokesmen have been lining up to urge the Government to fight to retain our opt-out of the 48 hour maximum working week saying it is essential to our competitiveness and flexible labour market.

Certain newspapers and politicians are predictably trying to turn it into an issue of ‘who governs Britain’. Business organisations are saying it is a critical test of the Government’s resolve to support our flexible labour market and prove its business friendliness.

Those wanting to see it end maintain the opt-out props up our long-hours culture, helps depress UK productivity and undermines a healthy work-life balance for many workers and their families.

The European Parliament’s proposed changes to the Working Time Directive would change the reference period for calculation of the average 48 hour week from 17 to 52 weeks. They say this would give employers more than enough flexibility to deal with sudden surges in demand and for individuals to work a reasonable amount of overtime.

However, as both the French and German Governments also support the continuation of the opt-out, it will probably be retained when the matter comes before the Council of Ministers next month – even though it is a matter for qualified majority voting.

Workers World Wide Reject Mandatory Retirement Ages

A new global research study on attitudes to retirement and ageing has found a global rejection of mandatory retirement ages.

The vast majority of the nearly 11,500 people in 10 countries interviewed for the Future of Retirement report do not want to simply sit out their retirement but would be happy to continue working well into traditional retirement age. They reject any government or corporate legislation preventing older people from working in retirement if they are still capable of doing so.

The report was commissioned by HSBC, the banking and financial services company.

The report’s findings beg the question as to whether the new UK Government is prepared to revisit the decision on the national default retirement age. With a new set of Ministers in DWP, Alan Johnson installed in the new Department of Productivity, Energy and Industry and Patricia Hewitt moved across to Health, perhaps its not all done and dusted. Watch this space….

Substantial Increase In Government Spending on Consultants

Last year the Government spent nearly £1.9 billion on management consultants – an increase of 46% compared with 2003.

Central government spent over £1 billion on them, whilst there was a threefold increase in the use of consultants by quangos – accounting for £137 million of the total and the NHS increased its spending on them to £85 million (a 235% rise).

The increase in the use of management consultants comes at the same time the Gershon cuts are being implemented. Cuts which will see 100,000 civil servants
lose their jobs.

The Treasury however maintains the spending on consultants has peaked and that they are only brought in to provide expertise that civil servants cannot give at a time when it is seeking to modernise services.

Week Starting 2nd May

Blunkett Gets DWP In Cabinet Reshuffle

Whilst there is to be no change in the top posts of Chancellor, Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary, Tony Blair has reshuffled a number of others.

David Blunkett returns to the Cabinet as Secretary of State at the Department of Work & Pensions. Alan Johnson moves from the DWP to take over from Patricia Hewitt at what was previously the DTI but is to be renamed the Department of Productivity, Energy and Industry.

Patricia Hewitt becomes Health Secretary, John Reid moves from Health to Defence and David Miliband joins John Prescott’s team at the Office of Deputy Prime Minister in a new post as Minister for Communities and Local Government.

Geoff Hoon, who has been almost invisible at Defence in recent months, becomes Leader of the House of Commons and Peter Hain moves to Northern Ireland Secretary. Despite some recent criticism it looks like Ruth Kelly stays as Education Secretary.

Amongst other things, the changes mean David Blunkett takes on responsibility for employment and the task of overseeing reforms of pensions and welfare-to-work. Alan Johnson will oversee the drawing up and introduction of the age discrimination legislation, the Single Equality Commission and a single Equality Bill.. We look forward to working with them on these matters.

Labour Victory Means ‘Normality Resumed’

The Labour Party’s record breaking, third consecutive general election victory means that around the age and employment , skills and lifelong learning, pensions and equalities agendas at least, ‘normality is resumed’.

The previous Labour Government had released a raft of important policy papers connected with these issues shortly before and during the election (e.g. Young Persons and Adults Skills White Papers, the DWP’s 5 Year Plan, ‘Opportunity Age’, Incapacity Benefits reform proposals and its election manifesto). There is a consultation underway on ‘Flexible Working’, by late July the consultation on the draft age regulations should have begun, the Pensions Commission will deliver its final report in the autumn and hopefully the Equality Commission Bill will be reintroduced into the first session of the new parliament.

There will no doubt be private relief amongst many organisations involved in these agendas that the turmoil involved in a change of Government has been avoided. But after all the fine words and aspirations – particularly in Labour’s second term - what they will be looking for in the third is ‘mainstream’ funding and actions to match those words…

BA Wins Retirement At 55 Case

British Airways (BA) has won an Employment Tribunal Appeal case allowing it to continue with its normal retirement age of 55 – at least for the time being.

The original unfair dismissal cases were brought by a number of former employees citing either TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings – Protection of Employment) Regulations or the Sex Discrimination Act.

In the TUPE instance, the former employees alleged they should have been subject to the retirement age of their previous employer which had been acquired by BA. The mandatory retirement age at that previous firm had been 60. The Appeal Tribunal ruled that even though TUPE applied, the retirement age of 55 had been customary for anyone taken on by BA since 1971 and that this was therefore the applicable ‘normal retirement age’.

Three former employees claimed indirect sex discrimination under an exception the airline had originally applied only to male staff hired prior to 1971, allowing them to work on till 60, even though their female colleagues were originally made to retire at 55. The Appeal Tribunal agreed there had been indirect discrimination but that it had been justified.

Next year’s Age Discrimination Regulations will introduce a national default retirement age of 65 for the first time. Unless BA can come up with an objectively justifiable reason why it should be allowed to maintain a normal retirement age of 55, it will have to change its policy before October 1st next year.

Candidate Photos Fuel ‘Lookism’

According to one recruitment agency, the growing trend in the UK of attaching candidate photos to CVs is fuelling discrimination as employers increasingly judge job candidates on how they look.

“No matter how liberal our society has become, the fact remains that people are influenced by people’s looks….Employers can be resistant to a perfectly good candidate because of their age, sex, race or simply even their ‘look’ “ commented Jonny Cainer of Marketing Professionals recruitment agency.

He advocates leaving off photos during the selection process, so that those who do get shortlisted for interview are there purely on merit.

TAEN advocates not supplying a photo in the first place.

SMEs In Hiring Mood

Despite a general decline in business confidence, it seems that small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are more optimistic in their recruitment intentions than larger businesses, but could be facing a skills shortage in coming months.

Manpower’s latest Employment Outlook Survey found that a balance of +21% of small companies and +20% of medium-sized companies intend increasing staffing levels between April and June 2005. This compares to a figure of 9% of large businesses.

Mark Cahill, Manpower’s Managing Director, commented, “SMEs make up 99% of British business, so its great news for the UK economy that hiring intentions are so positive and SMEs are looking to expand their workforces.”

“The challenge all businesses face currently is the lack of skills and experience required for some vacancies. This skills shortage tends to affect smaller businesses more than larger: SMEs are less likely to have internal training schemes, and are even more reliant on recruiting people with the right skills. The focus for SMEs is therefore on their recruitment and retention strategies – finding ways to attract the best talent in a tight labour market, and keeping them in their business.”

From an older jobseekers point of view this is good news. There is good evidence that many smaller companies are more ‘age friendly’ than their larger counterparts.

© TAEN 2006