Questioning 'old' problems

The conference has been organised by Dr Philip Taylor, who has recently joined the Cambridge Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Ageing (CIRCA) as Senior Research Associate and Executive Director. Speaking at the conference, Dr Taylor discussed his new report entitled 'New policies for older workers', a comparative analysis of countries such as Australia and Japan - where public policy on these issues is well developed - and countries like the USA -where it is still in its infancy.

One of his conclusions is that the abolition of mandatory retirement appears to have done little so far to change patterns of retirement. Such a move, proposed by the government this week in its Green Paper, Simplicity, security and choice: working and saving for retirement, faces the twin problems of ageist employers finding other ways to dismiss their older workers, and the continuing popularity of early retirement amongst employees.

Even in the most advanced countries, Dr Taylor points out, this area of policy is still relatively undeveloped, but he suggests that progress can be made if policy-makers address some basic principles: policies should be integrated and consistent so that they take into account other issues such as lifelong learning and the family; local and regional government, trade unions and other organisations all have a role to play in implementing change; reforms should target specific groups rather than a generic ‘older worker’; and adequate resources must be made available to help people to remain in or move back into employment.

Finally, Dr Taylor suggests, the communication of these issues must be carefully handled. All too often public discourse is apocalyptic in its tone - people refer to 'the pensions crisis' and 'the demographic timebomb' - ideas which may only reinforce negative stereotypes and thus raise even higher the barriers older workers face in entering the labour market.

Image: Photodisc