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by Lloyd Fernando

The writer is former Secretary to Governor NWP

The populace of the working world is ageing at a rate which is alarming the authorities who fear the growing number of elderly people would be a drag on economic growth.

In South Korea, the number of people aged 65 and older reached 3.37 million in November 2000, accounting for 7.3 per cent of the country's estimated population then of 46 million, according to the National Statistical Office (NSO).

Pressure to retain

The United States reached the same rate of people over 65 in 1970. However, statistics show that South Korea is becoming an aged society at a faster than expected rate. This means that the number of economically active people will go down and the country's productivity will decrease and welfare costs and burdens on offspring supporting parents will become heavier.

In the past few years, a number of countries have decided to raise the age of eligibility for a basic public pension, most implementing them on a phased out basis. Japan is raising the pensionable age from 65 to 67. Belgium, Portugal and the United Kingdom are all raising the age for women to that of men. A consensus seems to emerge among industrialised countries that a visible technique to tackle the grey time-bomb is to increase the pressure on older people to remain in the workforce.

Ali Taqi writing to International Social Security Review, argues that increasing retirement ages alone is not enough. He stresses that instances of a sharp economic downturn, or of fundamental restructuring, or of a company downsizing, or of large-scale redundancies, the availability of early retirement plans can be a vital tool for governments, employers and unions to cope with consequences of labour force reductions.

Nevertheless encouraging employers to retain and recruit older workers is against the labour equation. Without lowering the obstacles the older workers face to gaining employment, moves to coerce people to stay longer in the job market may be considered unfair and could prove counter-productive. Improving opportunities for older people will require progress on three fronts, strengthening the position of older people in the labour market, countering preconceptions and stereotypes, and making age discrimination unlawful.

Improving the employment position of more mature workers would require the widespread use of training and lifelong learning. This is not a problem of age but a question of keeping up with technology and skill requirements, or of having formal qualifications which many men and women could not easily obtain 35 or 40 years ago.

Age patterns

Legislating to protect older workers is still controversial in many countries and very few states, have been banning age discrimination. Of those that do, the USA has the best established provision. The principal federal legislation of the 1967 Age Discrimination in Employment Act prohibits discrimination in recruitment, termination and most other aspects of employment, with only very limited exceptions and exemptions.

At present, most countries do not provide legal protection against age discrimination. However, appropriate age patterns tend to be widely held, entry level jobs or apprenticeships are for young, mid-level jobs are for middle-aged, training, it is considered unworthy for older employees, for, they would soon retire.

Tackling discrimination, promoting training and workplace flexibility, and changing attitudes through education and information, are all possible strategies to try to improve the labour market position of seniors, and boost participation rates.

Debates over the role of such solutions are heavily contested and these are undoubtedly controversial issues. What is generally contested is that the trends of the last few decades would lead to increasing pressures on social security provisions, notably pensions and health services.

The World Assembly on Ageing, it is, no doubt, a prime opportunity for all those involved such as governments, employers, workers, and older citizens to re-examine the scale of the problem of diffusing the 'grey time-bomb' and discuss possible solutions. The sooner action is taken the better, for, the clock is ticking.

The National Statistical Office of South Korea has warned that the faster ageing of the population would mean that the ratio of people aged more than 65 would hit 14 per cent by 2019, one year earlier than a prediction made by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in September last year.

We are of such stuff

as dreams are made on,

and our little life is

rounded with a sleep.

- Shakespeare

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