Miriam Kullmann

Unused Potential? The Risk of Unemployed ‘Older’ Workers

Using Sens capability approach as an analytical framework, this paper attempts to assess and evaluate the Dutch measures for facilitating transitions from unemployment to (gainful) employment. This method is particularly useful in the context of the EUs economically informed flexicurity approach to evaluate the institutional preconditions for effective participation in the labour market. It will be argued that the existing legal measures alone are insufficient to address the difficulties of reintegrating older (long-term) unemployed persons in the labour market. Measures taken to reactivate older unemployed workers merely build upon economic considerations, such as guaranteeing the sustainability of the pensions and social security schemes. Other (non-economic) considerations are often overlooked. This ignores the actual risks: not actually having access to the labour market entails a variety of risks, not only in terms of job, and thus (a partial) income, loss for the employee concerned, but also for the Member States who are obliged to do everything necessary to achieve the EUs goals.

Extending working life : The Dutch government's response

Ageing has been a concern for several years now. Member States introduced higher pensionable ages to increase labour market participation and facilitate the active participation of older workers in the labour market, and also those who are beyond pensionable age. This contribution uses the Netherlands as a case study for analysing the introduced changes made to facilitate the employment of pensionable workers. Besides increasing pensionable age, obstacles in labour law were also removed. A ‘labour law light’ regime has been created for this group of workers, making hiring pensionable workers more flexible by loosening dismissal law protection, introducing an extended possibility of using fixed-term employment contracts, and diminishing the employers obligation to continue paying the workers wage during sickness. This paper critically analyses the merits of the governments response by statutorily facilitating the possibility of employing workers beyond their pensionable age. The regimes aim has significant limitations with regard to actually stimulating employees to continue working beyond the pensionable age, having in mind a more sustainable approach towards active ageing.