The head of the Federal Employment Agency in Nahles considers the early retirement of employees to be “counterproductive”. In a recent interview, she takes a critical view of corporate programs.
In many large German companies, programs are common with which older employees can partially or completely retire earlier, even before the statutory retirement age is reached. From the point of view of the head of the Federal Employment Agency, Andrea Nahles, this is the wrong way.
“It is high time that the companies that are doing this understand that the demographic development affects them too,” Nahles told the “Rheinische Post”. From a macroeconomic perspective, early retirement programs are “counterproductive,” according to the BA boss. Experienced specialists in particular are needed in the labor market for as long as possible.
More early retirement programs again?
Due to the Corona crisis, “the unfortunate early retirement practice seems to have increased again”. Many semi-retirement programs start at age 60 or even earlier. After all, the employment rate among 60-year-old men has risen from 55 to 63.5 percent since 2015, and among 63-year-olds it has doubled from 25 to 50 percent.
According to Nahles, older workers still have “a significant potential workforce”. Employers should therefore “clarify in individual talks with their older employees” whether and how they could continue to be employed.
economy demands longer working lifetime
The statements by the head of the BA can be understood as a request to speak in the current discussion about the retirement age and the working life of German citizens. At the weekend, business wise man Veronika Grimm spoke out in favor of automatically raising the retirement age as life expectancy increases. “The standard retirement age should be linked to life expectancy,” Grimm told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
opposition from the parties
The reactions to the proposal from politicians were rather critical. The CDU general secretary, Carsten Linnemann, told the newspapers of the Funke media group: “Politics need the courage to come up with differentiated solutions. You can’t increase the retirement age across the board.” The labor market policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Pascal Kober, was also cautious: “Increasing the retirement age can only be considered with longer transition periods, because people plan their retirement phase for the long term,” he told the Funke newspapers.
Chancellor Scholz has also spoken out against raising the retirement age. “I am firmly convinced that we no longer need to keep raising the retirement age,” said Scholz last Thursday at a public dialogue in Erfurt, Thuringia. It is “great” if people want to work longer. But this must be voluntary.