Housing, Labour Mobility and Hunting for Jobs
Last week’s suggestion by Housing Minister Grant Shapps, that social housing tenants should be able to swap homes to chase employment opportunities, merits comment. Norman Tebbit’s observation in the...
View ArticleBeecroft's 'Scrap Unfair Dismissal' Proposals - a Licence for Ageist Employers?
How odd that the Government should ask a venture capitalist to advise on employment law and how intemperate and ill advised a response Adrian Beecroft appears to have offered in his report, a draft of...
View ArticleSnuffing out Growth in Older Apprentices
The new sculpture of a plumbing apprentice in the forecourt of the London’s Cannon Street station reminds me of the stories of City workers abandoning the slog of stress- soaked trading floors for the...
View ArticleHow Can We Work Longer while Stress and Long Hours Prevail in Britain?s...
With voices increasingly being raised about the need to get rid of the European Working Time Directive, it is timely to look at an object of some beauty, expressed in craftsmanship and underlying noble...
View ArticleEmployment Rights Reforms Could Put Mandatory Retirement Back onto the Agenda
The papers today are full of reports that the government is going to back some of Adrian Beecroft’s proposals to curb workers’ rights. The Independent reports that Vince Cable will today unveil a...
View ArticleOsborne's State Pension Age Rise Demands Serious Culture Change in the Workplace
George Osborne, in his Autumn Statement, has announced that the increase to 67 will now take place between 2026 and 2028. This is eight years earlier than previously planned - the Chancellor claimed...
View ArticleEnding Age Bias in Recruitment
Looking back on over 40 years of commenting on employment matters, I recall a time when there was little protection against discrimination. Unfairness was rife and covered many areas. Various bodies,...
View ArticleA Sanity Check for Self Employment
In a media interview last week, I was asked for my views on self employment versus employment for the older jobseeker. I couldn’t help but think that choice of any kind would be a fine thing for many...
View ArticleSurfing Back to Health and Work
Stress at work is a big thing. Mental ill health is of course bigger and wider but it is clear the two are related. I am inspired to comment by a conference called by the European Social Fund backed...
View ArticleO'Reilly Case a Turning Point at the BBC?
Lovers of Pauline conversions will have noticed the about turn of Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC, on the issue of women TV presenters (most especially, older female presenters). Not only...
View ArticleHow George Osborne Could Provide a 'Budget for Grey Jobs'
In all the free advice and speculation about the Chancellor’s options this week, you can bet that there will not be many calls for a budget for older jobseekers. Yet if we are to get growth back into...
View ArticleWhat Difference will Osborne's 'Granny tax' Make to People's Decisions to...
There has been a storm of protest against Chancellor George Osborne’s decision to freeze the special tax allowances received by the over-65s, and to abolish them for newly turning 65 year olds from...
View ArticleBlowing the Whistle on Ageist Fouls
Sport is a great metaphor for life even though it is more frivolous and exaggerated in its highs and lows. At some point I guess the lessons of sport and real life may become too far-fetched but I am...
View ArticleTAEN Comment on Seldon vs Clarkson Wright & Jakes (CWJ)
The decision of the Supreme Court in the Seldon case has been published today. It has been eagerly awaited along with some speculation that it would be a “landmark case”, a “turning point,” perhaps...
View ArticleThe Realistic Economics of Retirement
Figures from the National Association of Pension Funds confirm what we already know about the receding horizon of retirement. For many people – seven out of eight it would seem – retirement became...
View ArticleBeecroft, Older Workers and the Flexicurity Alternative
Since a leak in the Daily Telegraph ten days or so ago, Adrian Beecroft’s ideas have been well aired and well noted, though so far I have abstained from the discussion. However, as no-one has yet (to...
View ArticleDebating Intergenerational Conflict with TAEN and Beecroft
Last week our latest TAEN debate examined the hoary chestnut of intergenerational conflict in the labour market. It was interesting to see that the Daily Telegraph was within a few days, chewing over...
View ArticleNational Insurance Contributions for Working Longer?
News comes today of a group of backbench Tory MPs who are calling for changes to the current system so that workers aged over state pension age will have to pay National Insurance contributions (NICs)....
View ArticleThe Heavy Weather of Ageist Music Pundits
Kate Apted, TAEN’s Project and Marketing Executive, takes ageist music pundits to task: While 2012 may well be remembered for the summer that was washed away in a deluge of unseasonal rain, it should...
View ArticleOlder Workers and Productivity
Chris Ball’s response to David Wighton’s article on older workers and the effect they have on youth unemployment (‘Being older shouldn’t mean an automatic rise’, The Times, Wednesday 1 August) has been...
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