Speaking this week at the annual conference of the Employers’ Forum on Age (EFA), Harriet Harman, who holds the Government brief on equality, commented that “public policy and employment patterns” had to change “significantly” to accommodate older people in the workforce. Along with a review of the default retirement age later this year, she signals the Government’s intent to increase the participation of older people in the workforce for decades to come.
The writer can see the sense of the overall approach – a default retirement age, where someone effectively loses their job simply by virtue of having a birthday – can be seen to be discriminatory in nature. If a worker has the qualifications, motivation and skills to perform a role, why stop at 65?
However, there is some dissent amongst groups representing younger workers. In this recession, the hardest hit have been younger age groups. Bad-tempered whispers about “bed-blockers” and “timeservers” preventing youngsters from entering the job market can only grow louder if the current harsh economic conditions continue.
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