The General Conference of the International Labour
Organisation,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the
International Labour Office, and having met in its Sixty-sixth Session on 4 June
1980, and
Recalling that the Discrimination (Employment and
Occupation) Convention and Recommendation, 1958, do not include age among the
grounds for discrimination listed therein, but provide for possible additions to
the list, and
Recalling the specific provisions relating to older workers
in the Employment Policy Recommendation, 1964, and in the Human Resources
Development Recommendation, 1975, and
Recalling the terms of existing instruments relating to the
social security of older persons, in particular the Invalidity, Old-Age and
Survivors' Benefits Convention and Recommendation, 1967, and
Recalling also the provisions of article 6, paragraph (3),
of the Declaration on Equality of Opportunity and Treatment for Women Workers,
adopted by the International Labour Conference at its Sixtieth Session in 1975,
and
Considering it desirable to supplement the existing
instruments with standards on equality of opportunity and treatment for older
workers, on their protection in employment and on preparation for and access to
retirement, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with
regard to older workers: work and retirement, which is the fourth item on the
agenda of the session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form
of a Recommendation,
adopts this twenty-third day of June of the year one
thousand nine hundred and eighty, the following Recommendation, which may be
cited as the Older Workers Recommendation, 1980:
This Recommendation applies to all workers who are
liable to encounter difficulties in employment and occupation because of
advancement in age.
In giving effect to this Recommendation, a more precise
definition of the workers to whom it applies, with reference to specific age
categories, may be adopted in each country, in a manner consistent with national
laws, regulations and practice and appropriate under local conditions.
The workers to whom this Recommendation applies are
referred to herein as as older workers.
Employment problems of older workers should be dealt with
in the context of an over-all and well balanced strategy for full employment
and, at the level of the undertaking, of an over-all and well balanced social
policy, due attention being given to all population groups, thereby ensuring
that employment problems are not shifted from one group to another.
Each Member should, within the framework of a national
policy to promote equality of opportunity and treatment for workers, whatever
their age, and of laws and regulations and of practice on the subject, take
measures for the prevention of discrimination in employment and occupation with
regard to older workers.
Each Member should, by methods appropriate to national
conditions and practice:
make provision for the effective participation of
employers' and workers' organisations in formulating the policy referred to in
Paragraph 3 of this Recommendation;
make provision for the effective participation of
employers' and workers' organisations in promoting the acceptance and observance
of this policy;
enact such legislation and/or promote such programmes as
may be calculated to secure the acceptance and observance of the policy.
Older workers should, without discrimination by reason of
their age, enjoy equality of opportunity and treatment with other workers as
regards, in particular:
access to vocational guidance and placement services;
access, taking account of their personal skills,
experience and qualifications, to:
employment of their choice in both the public and
private sectors: Provided that in exceptional cases age limits may be set
because of special requirements, conditions or rules of certain types of
employment;
vocational training facilities, in particular further
training and retraining;
paid educational leave, in particular for the purpose
of training and trade union education;
promotion and eligibility for distribution of tasks;
employment security, subject to national law and
practice relating to termination of employment and subject to the results of the
examination referred to in Paragraph 22 of this Recommendation;
remuneration for work of equal value;
social security measures and welfare benefits;
conditions of work, including occupational safety and
health measures;
access to housing, social services and health
institutions, in particular when this access is related to occupational activity
or employment.
Each Member should examine relevant statutory provisions
and administrative regulations and practices in order to adapt them to the
policy referred to in Paragraph 3 of this Recommendation.
Each Member should, by methods appropriate to national
conditions and practice:
ensure as far as possible the observance of the policy
referred to in Paragraph 3 of this Recommendation in all activities under the
direction or control of a public authority;
promote the observance of that policy in all other
activities, in co-operation with employers' and workers' organisations and any
other bodies concerned.
Older workers and trade union organisations as well as
employers and their organisations should have access to bodies empowered to
examine and investigate complaints regarding equality of opportunity and
treatment, with a view to securing the correction of any practices regarded as
in conflict with the policy.
All appropriate measures should be taken to ensure that
guidance, training and placement services provide older workers with the
facilities, advice and assistance they may need to enable them to take full
advantage of equality of opportunity and treatment.
Application of the policy referred to in Paragraph 3 of
this Recommendation should not adversely affect such special protection or
assistance for older workers as is recognised to be necessary.
Within the framework of a national policy to improve
working conditions and the working environment at all stages of working life,
measures appropriate to national conditions and practice designed to enable
older workers to continue in employment under satisfactory conditions should be
devised, with the participation of the representative organisations of employers
and workers.
Studies should be undertaken, with the participation of
employers' and workers' organisations, in order to identify the types of
activity likely to hasten the ageing process or in which older workers encounter
difficulties in adapting to the demands of their work, to determine the reasons,
and to devise appropriate solutions.
These studies may be part of a general system for
evaluating jobs and corresponding skills.
The results of the studies should be widely
disseminated, in particular to employers' and workers' organisations, and, as
the case may be, through them to the older workers concerned.
Where the reasons for the difficulties in adaptation
encountered by older workers are mainly related to advancement in age, measures
in respect of the type of activity in question should to the extent practicable
be applied so as to:
remedy those conditions of work and of the working
environment that are likely to hasten the ageing process;
modify the forms of work organisation and working time
which lead to stress or to an excessive pace of work in relation to the
possibilities of the workers concerned, in particular by limiting overtime;
adapt the job and its content to the worker by recourse
to all available technical means and, in particular, to ergonomic principles, so
as to preserve health, prevent accidents and maintain working capacity;
provide for a more systematic supervision of the
workers' state of health;
provide for such supervision on the job as is
appropriate for preserving the workers' safety and health.
Among the measures to give effect to Paragraph 13,
clause (b), of this Recommendation, the following might be taken at the level of
the undertaking, after consulting the workers' representatives or with the
participation of their representative organisations, or through collective
bargaining, according to the practice prevailing in each country:
reducing the normal daily and weekly hours of work of
older workers employed on arduous, hazardous or unhealthy work;
promoting the gradual reduction of hours of work, during
a prescribed period prior to the date on which they reach the age normally
qualifying workers for an old-age benefit, of all older workers who request such
reduction;
increasing annual holidays with pay on the basis of
length of service or of age;
enabling older workers to organise their work time and
leisure to suit their convenience, particularly by facilitating their part-time
employment and providing for flexible working hours;
facilitating the assignment of older workers to jobs
performed during normal day-time working hours after a certain number of years
of assignment to continuous or semi-continuous shift work.
Every effort should be made to meet the difficulties
encountered by older workers through guidance and training measures such as
those provided for in Paragraph 50 of the Human Resources Development
Recommendation, 1975.
With the participation of the representative
organisations of employers and workers, measures should be taken with a view to
applying to older workers, wherever possible, systems of remuneration adapted to
their needs.
These measures might include:
use of systems of remuneration that take account not
only of speed of performance but also of know-how and experience;
the transfer of older workers from work paid by results
to work paid by time.
Measures might also be taken to make available to older
workers if they so desire other employment opportunities in their own or in
another occupation in which they can make use of their talents and experience,
as far as possible without loss of earnings.
In cases of reduction of the workforce, particularly in
declining industries, special efforts should be made to take account of the
specific needs of older workers, for instance by facilitating retraining for
other industries, by providing assistance in securing new employment or by
providing adequate income protection or adequate financial compensation.
Special efforts should be made to facilitate the entry
or re-entry into employment of older persons seeking work after having been out
of employment due to their family responsibilities.
For the purposes of this Part of this Recommendation:
the term prescribed means determined by or in virtue of
one of the means of action referred to in Paragraph 31 of this Recommendation;
the term old-age benefit means a benefit provided in the
case of survival beyond a prescribed age;
the term retirement benefit means old-age benefit the
award of which is subject to the cessation of any gainful activity;
the expression age normally qualifying workers for an
old-age benefit means the prescribed age for award of old-age benefit with
reference to which such an award can be either advanced or postponed;
the term long-service benefit means a benefit the grant
of which depends only upon the completion of a long qualifying period,
irrespective of age;
the term qualifying period means a period of
contribution, or a period of employment, or a period of residence, or any
combination thereof, as may be prescribed.
Wherever possible, measures should be taken with a view to:
ensuring that, in a framework allowing for a gradual
transition from working life to freedom of activity, retirement is voluntary;
making the age qualifying for an old-age pension
flexible.
Legislative and other provisions making mandatory the
termination of employment at a specified age should be examined in the light of
the preceding Paragraph and Paragraph 3 of this Recommendation.
Subject to its policy regarding special benefits, each
Member should endeavour to ensure that older workers whose hours of work are
gradually reduced and reach a prescribed level, or who start to work on a
part-time basis, receive, during a prescribed period prior to the date on which
they reach the age normally qualifying workers for an old-age benefit, a special
benefit in partial or full compensation for the reduction in their remuneration.
The amount and conditions of the special benefit
referred to in subparagraph (1) of this Paragraph should be prescribed; where
appropriate, the special benefit should be treated as earnings for the purpose
of calculating old-age benefit and the period during which it is paid should be
taken into account in such calculation.
Older workers who are unemployed during a prescribed
period prior to the date on which they reach the age normally qualifying workers
for an old-age benefit should, where an unemployment benefit scheme exists,
continue until such date to receive unemployment benefit or adequate income
maintenance.
Alternatively, older workers who have been unemployed
for at least one year should be eligible for an early retirement benefit during
a prescribed period prior to the date on which they reach the age normally
qualifying workers for an old-age benefit; the grant of early retirement benefit
should not be made dependent upon a qualifying period longer than that required
at the age normally qualifying workers for an old-age benefit and its amount,
corresponding to that of the benefit the worker concerned would have received at
that age, should not be reduced to offset the probable longer duration of
payment, but, for the purpose of calculating this amount, the period separating
the actual age from the age normally qualifying workers for an old-age benefit
need not be included in the qualifying period.
Older workers who:
have been engaged in occupations that are deemed arduous
or unhealthy, for the purpose of old-age benefit, by national laws or
regulations or national practice, or
are recognised as being unfit for work to a degree
prescribed, should be eligible, during a prescribed period prior to the date on
which they reach the age normally qualifying workers for an old-age benefit, for
an early retirement benefit the grant of which may be made dependent upon a
prescribed qualifying period; the amount of the benefit, corresponding to that
of the benefit the worker concerned would have received at the age normally
qualifying workers to an old-age benefit, should not be reduced to offset the
probable longer duration of payment, but, for the purpose of calculating this
amount, the period separating the actual age from the age normally qualifying
workers for an old-age benefit need not be included in the qualifying period.
The provisions of subparagraph (1) of this Paragraph do
not apply to:
persons in receipt of an invalidity or other pension on
grounds of incapacity for work corresponding to a degree of invalidity or
incapacity at least equal to that required to qualify for an early retirement
benefit;
persons for whom adequate provision is made through
occupational pension schemes or other social security benefits.
Older workers to whom Paragraphs 24 and 25 do not apply
should be eligible for an early old-age benefit during a prescribed period prior
to the date on which they reach the age normally qualifying workers for an
old-age benefit, subject to such reductions as may be made in the amount of any
periodical old-age benefit they would have received at that age.
Under schemes in which the grant of an old-age benefit
depends on the payment of contributions or on a period of occupational activity,
older workers who have completed a prescribed qualifying period should be
entitled to receive a long-service benefit.
The provisions of Paragraphs 26 and 27 of this
Recommendation need not be applied by schemes in which workers can qualify for
an old-age benefit at the age of sixty-five or earlier.
Older workers who are fit for work should be able to
defer their claim to an old-age benefit beyond the age normally qualifying
workers for such a benefit, for example either for the purpose of satisfying all
qualifying conditions for benefit or with a view to receiving benefit at a
higher rate taking account of the later age at which the benefit is taken and,
as the case may be, of the additional work or contributions.
Retirement preparation programmes should be implemented
during the years preceding the end of working life with the participation or
representative organisations of employers and workers and other bodies
concerned. In this connection, account should be taken of the Paid Educational
Leave Convention, 1974.
Such programmes should, in particular, enable the
persons concerned to make plans for their retirement and to adapt to the new
situation by providing them with information on:
income and, in particular, the old-age benefit they can
expect to receive, their tax status as pensioners, and the related advantages
available to them such as medical care, social services and any reduction in the
cost of certain public services;
the opportunities and conditions for continuing an
occupational activity, particularly on a part-time basis, and on the possibility
of establishing themselves as self-employed;
the ageing process and measures to attenuate it such as
medical examinations, physical exercise and appropriate diet;
how to use leisure time;
the availability of facilities for the education of
adults, whether for coping with the particular problems of retirement or for
maintaining or developing interests and skills.
Effect may be given to this Recommendation, by stages as
necessary, through laws or regulations or collective agreements or in any other
manner consistent with national practice and taking account of national economic
and social conditions.
Appropriate measures should be taken with a view to
informing the public and, more particularly, those responsible for guidance,
training, placement and the social services concerned, as well as employers,
workers and their respective organisations, of the problems which older workers
may encounter in respect, in particular, of the matters dealt with in Paragraph
5 of this Recommendation and of the desirability of helping them to overcome
such problems.
Measures should be taken to ensure that older workers
are fully informed of their rights and opportunities and encouraged to avail
themselves of them.
