Home > Media Coverage > Globe and Mail, August 23, 2004

Report takes aim at forced retirement

By Simon Tuck, www.globeandmail.com Monday August 23, 2004

Ottawa - Canadian governments and companies need to encourage older employees to stay in the work force by offering more flexible conditions, says a new report that adds to the recent groundswell against mandatory retirement.

The report, written by two University of Western Ontario sociologists and released Monday, says policy makers and employers should attempt to address the looming skills shortages in some industries by offering "phased retirement and workplace flexibility to prolong participation of older workers."

The document also calls for:

• Changes to immigration laws;
• Encouraging higher rates of participation by under-represented groups, such as single mothers and natives;
• Removing a variety of barriers to training.

"Labour market policies addressing skills shortages need to look beyond the fact of an aging work force to consider industry and occupation-specific issues and the whole complex of factors involved," Julie Ann McMullin, one of the authors, was quoted as saying in a press release.

The issues of mandatory retirement and the aging work force have been thrust into the limelight in recent months because of recent demographic changes in Canada and throughout the industrialized world.

Those changes have been caused largely by lower birth rates, longer life expectancies, an increase in postsecondary education, and the aging of the baby boomers. The Canadian labour force is projected to shrink after 2016, says the report, which was written by Ms. McMullin and Martin Cooke. Those supporting an end to mandatory retirement argue that nobody should be forced off their job and that it would be good for the durability of social programs such as the Canada Pension Plan if people remained in the work force longer.

Those who oppose an end to mandatory retirement, especially people in organized labour, say the movement against mandatory retirement is simply a covert cost-saving move by business and governments. These critics warn that ending mandatory retirement would allow governments and businesses to push the start of pension plans to a later age, such as 70, from the current standard of 65.

But the report, titled Ageing and Skill Shortages: An Overblown Threat, also says there's no evidence that Canada faces a broad shortage of skilled workers because of an aging population. Governments must understand that the looming shortages will only affect certain "hot spots," not the entire work force, the document states.

The age of a profession or an industry's work force is only one factor in determining whether it will face a skills shortage, the document also states. The mobility of its workers, working conditions that affect attracting and retaining workers, and the time required to train new workers are also key factors.

The report is based on a review of demographics and an examination of the retirement ages of different industries and occupations. In particular, the study looks at four job classifications or industries: nursing, information technology, skilled trades in manufacturing, and biotechnology. Nursing, for example, tends to lose workers earlier than some other professions, the report found, and will experience very high retirement rates over the next decade.

The report will likely add momentum against mandatory retirement.

In Canada, no law requires people to retire when they hit 65. But many workplaces/employers mandate it at that age, through collective agreements or company policies, even if an employee wants to keep working. Most provinces protect over-65 workers, but Ontario, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and British Columbia still don't.

But in Alberta, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Yukon, mandatory retirement is considered discriminatory under the law.

The Canadian Association of Retired Persons, with 230,000 members in Ontario, is also pushing for an end to mandatory retirement. It complains that 35 per cent of people older than 65 live in poverty and that these people often need to work to pay for food, housing, health care and transportation. Prime Minister Paul Martin, who is a considered a senior himself,/lets just use his age is on record as seeking to end mandatory retirement. "I don't believe in mandatory retirement," he said. "I think people should be allowed to work as long as they want to work and as long as they can make a contribution."

Original Citation Information:

Tuck, Simon, Report takes aim at mandatory retirement. www.globeandmail.com Monday August 23, 2004.