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Extending Working Lives

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The Future of Ageing in Europe

Abstract

This chapter confirms that extending working lives of older workers on a voluntary basis and ‘in dignity’ can be successfully reached through socially innovative, effective, sustainable, and transferable private and public measures. National policies can only give incentives, the employer level is crucial for enabling strategies. Financial incentives alone are of minor influence and might promote social inequalities. In companies, practical support from national policies as well as from social partners and stakeholders is essential, with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as particularly needy. The same is true for companies in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The concepts of workability and employability are the best points of departure for measures, but need to be ‘modernized’ according to new challenges. Work-life balance and life-course strategies are essential. Lifelong learning promotes the likelihood of maintaining work.

This article is based on MoPAct WP3 reports from Mikkel Barslund | Jürgen Bauknecht | Karolina Beaumont | Miroslav Beblavý, | Inga Blaziene | Carina Bössing | Andreas Cebulla | Nicolas Contrera | Mirko Di Rosa | Katrin Gasior | Vera Gerling | Hanna-Stella Haaristo | Nathan Hudson-Sharp | Elena Jarocińska | Arthur Kaboth | Ingel Kadarik | Veronika Khýrová, Marja Krumina | Reelika Leetma | Karolien Lenaerts | Katja Linnenschmidt, Elisa Martellucci | Märt Masso | Julia Moskvina | Gerd Naegele | Kirsti Nurmela, Liina Osila | Andrea Principi | Ana Ríncon-Aznar | Agnes Romanini | Iryna Shuvaieva, | Marco Socci | Izabela Styczyńska | Anna-Elisabeth Thum | Niko Väänänen, | Lina Vaitkute | Lucie Vidovićová | Marten von Werder | David Wilkinson | Asghar Zaidi | Eszter Zolyomi | Karolina Zubel

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Early-mover countries: Denmark, Finland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, the UK. Late movers: Spain, and the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries Poland, the Czech Republic, the Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

  2. 2.

    For this purpose TUD developed a conceptual framework which served as overarching research guidelines for the WP§ countries involved: Naegele, G. & Bauknecht, J. (eds.) (2013): MoPAct: Extending working lives. Conceptual Framework, work package 3, task 1. With support of Mikkel Barslund | Andreas Cebulla | Nicolas Contreras | Katrin Gasior | Reelika Leetmaa | Elisa Martelluci | Kirsti Nurmela | Liina Osila | Andrea Principi | Ana Rincón-Aznar | Marco Socci | Izabela Styczynska | Anna-Elisabeth Thum | Marten v. Werder david Wilkinson | Lucie Vidovicová | Eszter Zolyomi.

  3. 3.

    Naegele, G. & Bauknecht, J. (2017): Strategies (“Action plan“) for extending working lives, raising older workers’ employment rates and intensifying LLL in later working life. MoPacT final report. WP 3. Dortmund: FFG.

  4. 4.

    In this chapter only the national policy level and the meso level are considered. For more information about the role of the older workers themselves, social partners, other stakeholders and NGOs, see Naegele, G. and Bauknecht, J. (2017).

  5. 5.

    For an overview, see European Commission (2012).

  6. 6.

    As in Germany, with cohort effects assumed to amount to a quarter of the rise (Peschner 2014).

  7. 7.

    A recently completed secondary analysis carried out by Hess, Bauknecht and Pink (2016) in the context of the EWL project concludes: ‘(…) the results show that shifting from full-time work to part-time work might lead to earlier retirement and lower labour supply’ (p. 17).

  8. 8.

    See Dubois and Anderson (2012: 51f.) for a complete overview of details of public pensions and work after retirement for 2012.

  9. 9.

    This is also mentioned for (higher) seniority wages in a few country reports (e.g., for the Netherlands) as possibly serving as a barrier for the recruitment of older jobseekers.

  10. 10.

    Bauknecht, J. & Naegele, G. (eds.) (2015): MoPAct. Extending working lives. Best Practice Cases Work Package 3 task 2. Barslund, M., Bauknecht, J., Cebulla, A., Gasior, K., Kadarik, I., Khyrova, V., Krumina, M., Linnenschmidt, K., Martellucci, E., Moskvina, J., Naegele, G., Osila, L., Principi, A., Rincon-Aznar, A., Socci, M., Styczyńska, I., Vidovićová, L., Wilkinson, D. & Zólyomi, E.

  11. 11.

    Principi, A., Bauknecht, J., Socci, M. & di Rosa, M. (2016): Labour demand and longer working lives in Europe: drivers and barriers in companies. In: Report on Secondary Analyses. MoPAct WP3, 29–56.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Association for Gerontology, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany

    Gerhard Naegele

  2. Fliedner Fachhochschule Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Jürgen Bauknecht

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  1. Gerhard Naegele
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  2. Jürgen Bauknecht
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Correspondence to Gerhard Naegele .

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  1. Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Alan Walker

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Naegele, G., Bauknecht, J. (2019). Extending Working Lives. In: Walker, A. (eds) The Future of Ageing in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1417-9_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1417-9_5

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