The age of the older worker as retirement barriers come down

According to statistics from the Occupational Health & Safety Information Services, men in the UK work on average for 45.8 hours a week and women 40.6. Men and women in the rest of the EU put in a working week of 40.1 and 39 hours, respectively.

More than 2.7m UK workers work an average 56-hour week – way above the EU Working Time Directive limit of 48. Britain. However, has an opt-out from that ruling.

But given the time that people do spend at work, why would they want to go on past the statutory retirement age of 65 – other than for economic reasons or because they enjoy the company of other people in purposeful activity?

About 1.3m already do carry on, including 94-year-old Bill Webb. He joined Bradford-based supermarket giant Morrisons at the age of 80 and works a couple of shifts a week as a trolley assistant in the Kidderminster store.

He is by far the eldest of Morrisons’ 48,000 employees aged 40 and over. He said: “Retiring is not something I’ve considered as I don’t think your age should stop you working if you want to.

“Working here definitely keeps me young. I’ve suffered from sciatica in recent years and am convinced that if I didn’t have my job at Morrisons I wouldn’t be as active as I am now.”

Bill is in the Guinness Book Of Records as the longest-standing chairman of a bowls club – 50 years at his local club and counting.

In Bradford, Morrisons employs 4,200 people, of whom 70 are aged 65 and over.

Perhaps because of the number of mature people who are working, the Government has announced proposals to scrap the default retirement age of 65 by October next year.

Other steps include reviewing the age at which the state pension is paid and re-establishing the link between earnings and the basic state pension, which was scrapped by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Government.

Sceptics say the Government wants to delay making pension payments and increase the tax-paying potential of people up to 70. Others say people want to prolong their active life for as long as possible.

Balbir Panesar started out as an apprentice electrician, and is now managing director of PEC Building and Shopfitting, based at the Euroway Trading Estate.

He founded his company 33 years ago, and employs about 100 people. It specialises in office and shop refurbishment and does work for a number of national companies such as Magnet, Homebase, Kwik-Fit, Crown Paints and Wilber Nursing Homes.

Mr Panesar will be 60 next year. He plans to go on working for another ten years at least because, as he says, he likes challenges and enjoys getting in at 7.30am in the morning to get going.

He said: “I would like to see a degree of flexibility in the retirement age, but there has to be a cap on it somewhere. I would be okay if the Government took the retirement age up to 70, say; after that I am not sure.

“We have a number of employees aged 60. I have spoken to them and they want to retire at 65. Most of our work is very manual and that has to be taken into account.

“I do value employees who are in their 50s and 60s. The company is benefiting all the time from their experience.”

Councillor Ian Greenwood, leader of Bradford Council, the district’s biggest employer with up to 20,000 employees, was a local government trade union official from 1977 to 1991, so he has an interest in both sides of the retirement question.

He said: “We still have many people over 65. There is a formal process under current legislation where they have to sit down with a manager if they want to stay over the age of 65.”

But the Council is not a job-creation agency. Its statutory job is to deliver services to the public. Is it possible to reconcile the duty to deliver cost-effective services with an employment policy that offers job security?

“What we have never been good at in the public sector is performance management and we need to get much better at it,” said Coun Greenwood. But making people more insecure is not the answer. We should give people job security commensurate with the delivery of value-for-money services.

“But we need to be more flexible in the way people do their jobs and move between jobs,” he added.

But while Coun Greenwood believes in treating Council employees of all ages equably, will pending Government spending cuts allow that?

He said: “I think so. One of things that gets you through is experience. The big issue is whether a compulsory retirement policy stops you having conversations with employees nearing the age of retirement about the job they are doing.

“Raising the pensionable age to 67 and beyond is probably unavoidable. But it’s the pensionable age for poor people that’s going up. The better-off make their own arrangements and can retire when they want to.”

Barry Seal, chairman of Bradford District Care Trust, which employs 3,000 in the fields of mental illness and learning disability, is 73 this year, long past the point when he should be at home in Wyke watching his garden grow.

From 1979 to 1999 he was Euro MP for Yorkshire West. At 62 he tried retirement but it didn’t agree with him. He said: “I had a by-pass operation on election day in 1999. I started playing golf and bridge, but felt it was like waiting to die. I wanted to do something, be involved with people.

“I owed the NHS a lot, so I applied for a job with North Kirklees Patient Care Trust. After the trusts were merged I applied for the job in Bradford. It’s been worthwhile, something I enjoy doing.

“But from my time working in ICI, I can understand why people who do repetitive or arduous jobs can’t wait to retire. It also depends on your personality.”

He has reservations about two aspects of the Government’s proposals.

“I just worry about the pension age being raised to 67, or whatever they intend it to be. People won’t have a choice if they do that. And if people are working longer it reduces the jobs for younger people coming in.”

Harold Robinson, president of Bradford Chamber of Commerce, which has about 1,100 members, said the organisation would prefer to see the default retirement age retained rather than abandoned.

“But we would agree it is probably too low at 65 and needs to be raised. But there is a need for employers to be able to manage their workforce. In general terms we are in favour of a standard retirement age in line with the state pension age.”

Bradford’s population rose by more than 5,000 last year to 506,800, according to the Office For National Statistics. Of these, about 81,000 are of pensionable age – 65. That number is forecast to increase by more than 20,000 by 2031.

Age Concern Bradford’s chief executive Keith Nathan said: “We have argued that retirement should be flexible. It’s a big impacting thing for people in their 50s and 60s to be made redundant.

“At Age Concern we help people with Information Technology training – 2,000 people aged 50-plus in the district. The oldest I know of is 91. Some do it for employment, others to enjoy their retirement.

“Finding work has changed. In the past people were used to getting into a large foundry or the clothing industry through a personal introduction. Nowadays you’ve got to have a CV and help with interviews.

“If people can do a job we are in favour of them doing it because it gives people resources, standing and self-respect.”