| 1 | 1 | | The babble of heavily-accented English, Yiddish and German dies down as |
| 2 | | pensioners at the Stanley M. Isaacs senior centre in New York turn their attention to the |
| 3 | | afternoon's entertainment, and the Woodettes hit the floor. Named in honour of their |
| 4 | | creaking joints, the youngest dancer is 73, the oldest 84. |
| 2 | 5 | | President Reagan has a lot to answer for. America's oldest-ever president seems to |
| 6 | | have ins pi red his generation to such displays. All over the States, the people we would |
| 7 | | call pensioners are declaring that they won 't while away their final years snoozing in the |
| 8 | | Florida sunshine. |
| 3 | 9 | | One million older Americans, like their President, carry on working past the age of |
| 10 | | 70, and the law is firmly on their side. Last year it became illegal for any private |
| 11 | | company to set a compulsory retirement age, and the legal protection afforded to older |
| 12 | | workers has for some years now been stringent: indeed, some fear that the powerful age |
| 13 | | lobby is close to trampling on the rights of other groups. |
| 4 | 14 | | In 1967 Congress outlawed discrimination against a worker on the grounds of age, |
| 15 | | which was deemed to apply to anyone over 40. Now that legislation itself has come of |
| 16 | | age, and Congress has turned the screw tighter. Although in practice Americans are |
| 17 | | retiring earlier, those who want to go on and on can do so, whatever their employers |
| 18 | | might prefer. As if to prove a point, the measure was introduced by the father of the |
| 19 | | House of Representatives, Claude Pepper, who is a mere 87 years old. |
| 5 | 20 | | However, not everybody is enthusiastic. President Reagan may be a role model for |
| 21 | | older Americans eager to work into their seventies, but he's also ammunition for those |
| 22 | | who think it's crazy to abolish the retirement age. They argue that their President is a |
| 23 | | prime example of a man whose efficiency has shrunk with the passing years. Not so |
| 24 | | much 'would you buy a used car from this man?' - more 'would you want this man on |
| 25 | | your sales team?' |
| 6 | 26 | | The US Chamber of Commerce says that, in the past, companies were willing to |
| 27 | | carry workers even if their productivity dwindled in the last few years of their working |
| 28 | | life. Now, without any retirement age to fall back on, it fears managers may have to get |
| 29 | | rough, giving elderly workers written warnings and eventually the sack. |
| 7 | 30 | | If a company is found guilty of racial or sexual discrimination, it only has to pay |
| 31 | | out what the victim has lost in wages, plus interest. In an age-discrimination case, |
| 32 | | however, a judge can double that figure as punishment. |
| 8 | 33 | | Another source of irritation is that, unlike in other discrimination cases, a jury trial |
| 34 | | is allowed, and the juries tend to favour individuals over big companies. But there's |
| 35 | | another, very simple, factor at play here. Even if the jury consists of 12 white males who |
| 36 | | will never know what it's like to be black or a woman, they will all hope to grow old one |
| 37 | | day. Big business feels the dice are loaded against it, and the Chamber of Commerce |
| 38 | | argues that, because companies are frightened of the age lobby, redundancies are now |
| 39 | | made on a first-in-last-out basis - and this hits women and blacks disproportionately. |
| 9 | 40 | | More surprising is the hostility from the United States Equal Employment |
| 41 | | Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Some of its senior officials complain that the |
| 42 | | American Association for Retired People (AARP) is run by men in their thirties or forties |
| 43 | | with a taste for power and a patronizing attitude towards the old. They also worry that |
| 44 | | the balance has tipped too far in favour of the age lobby. |
| 10 | 45 | | Despite this the EEOC chairman, like most Americans, is amazed that Britain has |
| 46 | | nothing similar. Some people here would like to see that change, but businessman Mark |
| 47 | | de Bernardo has a stern warning for Britain: 'Ultimately it hurts other workers, hurts the |
| 48 | | economy, handcuffs employers, and in the long run may hurt older workers themselves.' |
| | | |
| | | Mark Mardell in 'The Listener', March 24, 1988 |
