MATURE WORKERS

The post below was part of a panel discussion by the Work and Learning Network at the U of A. Page references are to the document, "Mature Workers in Alberta and British Columbia" by Mildred Klassen with the Government of Alberta.


MATURE WORKERS IN ALBERTA AND BRITISH COLUMBIA
TRADE, INVESTMENT AND LABOUR MOBILITY AGREEMENT (TILMA)
PAPER, SPEAKING NOTES BY BRIAN STAPLES
CHAIR OF THE SENIORS’ ACTION AND LIAISON TEAM (SALT)
UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA, 2008/03/19

1. What is SALT? Social action by seniors, not politically aligned, self financed, concerned about advancing the civil society for people of all ages. ISA proposal utilizes seniors!

2. SALT’s TILMA Concerns. Not created by legislation, can result in suing of local governments if investors suffer, might sanction lower standards rather than highest standards for workers.

3. Some Encouraging Things.

a. Life Long Learning References, p. 20. Learning societies are essential to create and maintain highly trained work forces. Learning societies are also essential to democratic reform (including public finance of public governance) which is essential to seriously tackling global heating. Global heating trumps everything!

b. Work Place Wellness (WPW) , p.26. This would logically include provisions for work place worker fitness and other pro worker health initiatives which would reduce absenteeism, foster a more energetic work force and help take the burden off our public healthcare system.

WPW initiatives should also include strategies to introduce democracy in the workplace to build esprit de corps and a sense of commitment by workers to the job at hand, and capitalize on the brain power, insight, ingenuity and happiness levels of all workers on their job sites.

c. Creative and Valid Retention Incentives for Older Workers, and Other Similar Good Ideas, p.p. 22-27. These include such ideas as: time off for volunteering, sabbaticals, maintaining retired workers lists, mentoring, bringing back retirees to train younger workers, and so on. This was an outstanding part of the paper.

4. Some Interesting Facts in the Paper.

a. Sixty percent of workers in Canada have no employer facilitated pensions (p. 18) and, 40%of near retirement workers with incomes below $20,000 said they will not retire, while just 12 % of those with incomes over $60,00 said the same. P. 12.

5. Some Concerns.

a. Concern about use of term “Human Resources.” e.g., “A Human Resource
Strategy for British Columbia,” “Alberta Human Resources and Employment,” Human Resources and Social Development Canada.” Human resources for whom?

b. Concern about the movement away from Defined Benefit pension plans to Defined Contribution Pension plans.

c. Concern that that 60% of Canadian workers have no Employer-sponsored pension plan of any sort. We also have a huge element of contracting out with few, if any benefits, and we have a growing amount of part time employment because such people do not qualify for benefits, and we have a growing segment of highly trained young people and elders who are forced to work on a contracted basis, again with few or no benefits.

d. Concern about the move to raise the age of retirement on many fronts, including in Europe. (But loved what Netherlands seems to be doing! P. A2)

e. Concern about the lack of recognition by society of the essential unpaid work that retired people do, that would not be done if they were in the paid work force.

f. Concern about the lack of proper indexing of most pensions retired people now receive.

g. Concern about the move to end mandatory retirement provisions. See p. 33, “Both provinces could go further by explicitly not allowing contractual mandatory retirement.”

6. Some Recommendations:

a. Learning and Democracy. Do promote the Learning Society idea and democratic reform in the workplace and beyond. Political leaders can only do what the public understands. We need a massive change to green in the way our economy works. That will not happen without democratic reform. Global heating does, indeed, trump everything. Finance these ideas and those below with a progressive tax system. (More about this at , “A Little Democracy is a Dangerous Thing,” and , “Happiness and Community Education.”)

b. Universal Pensions. Advance the concept of a Government of Canada defined benefit pension for all citizens that would also take care of the sixty per cent of Canadian workers that that have no work site pensions, but would blend with the employer based pensions that 40% of us do have. Have this pension mature at age 65 but use the provisions in the paper that help those wishing to work past 65.

c. Part Time Benefits. Advance the idea that part time work have prorated benefits that go with full time jobs. Apply these benefits without age penalty.