“The answer to the demographic challenge will need to come partly from the greying population itself. Older workers should be enabled and encouraged to work for longer. Employers must do their utmost to keep them in employment and provide flexible working conditions to enable them to continue to work,” observed Dr Mestheneos.
Dr. Elizabeth Mestheneos
"Mandatory retirement ages must be lifted to enable those who wish or need to work to continue in paid employment,” she stressed. Adequate first pillar -state- pensions providing adequate income for all must be guaranteed. This will help avoid poverty which is linked directly to ill health and contributes to rising health care costs.
The gender dimension in the trend to move toward second and third pillar pensions must be addressed as those workers -largely women- who take career breaks or who work part-time to care for dependent relatives, and hence remain at a significant disadvantage.
The AGE President added that the current financial crisis provides clear evidence that supplementary pensions cannot substitute the responsibility of the state of ensuring adequate pension for all and to avoid gender gaps in pension provision.
Older workers have a valuable contribution to make today’s workforce. In the current economic context, their greater engagement presents an opportunity for a win-win situation for businesses and older workers alike.
According to AGE, European companies and SMEs can help by:
* Promoting adoption of proactive lifecourse age management methods in the workplace;
* Allowing workers flexiblity to combine part-time employment with volunteering, community involvement, lifelong learning and caring responsibilities;
* Implementing phased retirement to enable workers to make a gradual shift from full-time paid employment to an active period of retirement;
* Effecting a fresh business culture that accepts older workers as active and valued members of companies;
* Strengthening efforts to make more and better jobs available to older workers and researching on changes required to encourage older workers (including women) to work longer;
* Investing in workers of all ages and taking an age-neutral approach to (re-)training and skills upgrading;
* Supporting healthy ageing in the workplace, avoiding mental health problems caused by devaluation of older workers, and making rational use of resources to help older workers remain healthier, fitter for longer.
Click here for more details on how Europe can manage ageing working populations, and AGE’s position paper on how the EU can lessen the impact of the financial crisis on older workers.
AGE, the European Older People's Platform, is a European network of organisations of people aged 50+ and represents over 22 million older people in Europe. AGE aims to voice and promote the interests of the 150 million inhabitants aged 50+ in the European Union and to raise awareness of the issues that concern them most.
Website: www.age-platform.org
AGE Secretariat E-mail: info@age-platform.org
March 26, 2009
EUROPE: Business leaders urged to lift company mandatory retirement ages
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BRUSSELS, Belgium / AGE - European Older People's Platform / March 26, 2009
Dr Elizabeth Mestheneos, President of AGE, declared today that older workers must be enabled to work for longer if the EU is to meet the costs of its ageing populations. Speaking at the two-day European Business Summit which began here today, she emphasised on the key role that European business has to play in facilitating this.
“The answer to the demographic challenge will need to come partly from the greying population itself. Older workers should be enabled and encouraged to work for longer. Employers must do their utmost to keep them in employment and provide flexible working conditions to enable them to continue to work,” observed Dr Mestheneos.
Dr. Elizabeth Mestheneos
"Mandatory retirement ages must be lifted to enable those who wish or need to work to continue in paid employment,” she stressed. Adequate first pillar -state- pensions providing adequate income for all must be guaranteed. This will help avoid poverty which is linked directly to ill health and contributes to rising health care costs.
The gender dimension in the trend to move toward second and third pillar pensions must be addressed as those workers -largely women- who take career breaks or who work part-time to care for dependent relatives, and hence remain at a significant disadvantage.
The AGE President added that the current financial crisis provides clear evidence that supplementary pensions cannot substitute the responsibility of the state of ensuring adequate pension for all and to avoid gender gaps in pension provision.
Older workers have a valuable contribution to make today’s workforce. In the current economic context, their greater engagement presents an opportunity for a win-win situation for businesses and older workers alike.
According to AGE, European companies and SMEs can help by:
* Promoting adoption of proactive lifecourse age management methods in the workplace;
* Allowing workers flexiblity to combine part-time employment with volunteering, community involvement, lifelong learning and caring responsibilities;
* Implementing phased retirement to enable workers to make a gradual shift from full-time paid employment to an active period of retirement;
* Effecting a fresh business culture that accepts older workers as active and valued members of companies;
* Strengthening efforts to make more and better jobs available to older workers and researching on changes required to encourage older workers (including women) to work longer;
* Investing in workers of all ages and taking an age-neutral approach to (re-)training and skills upgrading;
* Supporting healthy ageing in the workplace, avoiding mental health problems caused by devaluation of older workers, and making rational use of resources to help older workers remain healthier, fitter for longer.
Click here for more details on how Europe can manage ageing working populations, and AGE’s position paper on how the EU can lessen the impact of the financial crisis on older workers.
AGE, the European Older People's Platform, is a European network of organisations of people aged 50+ and represents over 22 million older people in Europe. AGE aims to voice and promote the interests of the 150 million inhabitants aged 50+ in the European Union and to raise awareness of the issues that concern them most.
Website: www.age-platform.org
AGE Secretariat E-mail: info@age-platform.org
“The answer to the demographic challenge will need to come partly from the greying population itself. Older workers should be enabled and encouraged to work for longer. Employers must do their utmost to keep them in employment and provide flexible working conditions to enable them to continue to work,” observed Dr Mestheneos.
Dr. Elizabeth Mestheneos
"Mandatory retirement ages must be lifted to enable those who wish or need to work to continue in paid employment,” she stressed. Adequate first pillar -state- pensions providing adequate income for all must be guaranteed. This will help avoid poverty which is linked directly to ill health and contributes to rising health care costs.
The gender dimension in the trend to move toward second and third pillar pensions must be addressed as those workers -largely women- who take career breaks or who work part-time to care for dependent relatives, and hence remain at a significant disadvantage.
The AGE President added that the current financial crisis provides clear evidence that supplementary pensions cannot substitute the responsibility of the state of ensuring adequate pension for all and to avoid gender gaps in pension provision.
Older workers have a valuable contribution to make today’s workforce. In the current economic context, their greater engagement presents an opportunity for a win-win situation for businesses and older workers alike.
According to AGE, European companies and SMEs can help by:
* Promoting adoption of proactive lifecourse age management methods in the workplace;
* Allowing workers flexiblity to combine part-time employment with volunteering, community involvement, lifelong learning and caring responsibilities;
* Implementing phased retirement to enable workers to make a gradual shift from full-time paid employment to an active period of retirement;
* Effecting a fresh business culture that accepts older workers as active and valued members of companies;
* Strengthening efforts to make more and better jobs available to older workers and researching on changes required to encourage older workers (including women) to work longer;
* Investing in workers of all ages and taking an age-neutral approach to (re-)training and skills upgrading;
* Supporting healthy ageing in the workplace, avoiding mental health problems caused by devaluation of older workers, and making rational use of resources to help older workers remain healthier, fitter for longer.
Click here for more details on how Europe can manage ageing working populations, and AGE’s position paper on how the EU can lessen the impact of the financial crisis on older workers.
AGE, the European Older People's Platform, is a European network of organisations of people aged 50+ and represents over 22 million older people in Europe. AGE aims to voice and promote the interests of the 150 million inhabitants aged 50+ in the European Union and to raise awareness of the issues that concern them most.
Website: www.age-platform.org
AGE Secretariat E-mail: info@age-platform.org
