Brussels, 07/07/2010
John Monks, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), said “Where is the evidence that employers want to keep older workers in work? We know the life expectation is rising but see no evidence that a higher age of retirement would be matched by employers developing workplaces which encourage older workers to remain at work. Indeed the prevailing philosophy among too many employers is that older workers are too set in their ways to match rapidly changing work environments and should be encouraged to leave early, well below existing statutory retirement ages. This makes the Commission’s ideas for higher retirement ages look unrealistic. They might more usefully provide that workers can stay in their jobs until the statutory age”.