LISER has published its reflections on the situation of older workers in the labour force, both at a European and a national level.
The year 2012 was proclaimed "European Year of Active Aging and Intergenerational Solidarity". According to a report produced at that time by the authorities of the European Union, the year 2012 helped to convey a more positive image of the aging of the population by highlighting the potential of older people in the labour market and promoting their active participation in society and the economy.
Keeping older workers in employment is a concern that is increasingly present in European policies. According to LISER, to achieve this, it is important to consider the issue in European and national policies, as well as within companies and with the workers themselves.
Overall, research and studies classify older workers as those who, in the broadest sense, are between 55 and 65 years old. It can also be noted that within this range, age-specific variations are made on a case-by-case basis, depending on the country and according to the age a person can access their pension. There is no standardisation of the definition of the so-called aged worker, nor is there any harmonisation of the age of access to the retirement pension in the 28 Member States of the European Union.
Moreover, LISER noted that different expressions are used to refer to so-called older workers. At the symposium on 20 November 2017, Professor Aline Muller, Executive Director of LISER, remarked: "One can indeed speak successively of ‘experienced workers ‘, ‘active seniors’ or ‘aged workers ‘”. A company that wants to value its human resources and maintain its workforce will talk more about its "experienced" workers rather than "older workers".
The last reflection concerns a real paradigm shift that developed societies are experiencing. It is neither more nor less adapting work to the realities of digitalisation and the digital economy. According to LISER, this change should lead to the disappearance of some jobs and is a real challenge for the so-called older workers, in the sense that they will have to train themselves to cope with the resulting changes in work.
