Divestment or Investment? The Contradictions of Human Resource Management in Relation to Older Employees

Abstract

First paragraph: In the context of organisational and technical change, early retirements have been widely used since the mid-1970s to reduce labour costs and to facilitate the replacement of established workers. Viewed as 'quasi-redundancy', early retirement has been a favoured employer practice as it ensures labour force reductions with minimal threat to industrial peace (Casey, 1992). Indeed the full impact of early retirement as a quiet revolution can be seen in changing rates of economic activity. In 1975, 94 per cent of British males aged 55-59 and 84 per cent aged 60-64 were economically active. The corresponding figures for 1994 were 72 per cent and 49 per cent (HMSO, 1994; 1996). By the same token, the proportion of economic activity accounted for by registered unemployment has increased over this period. While 51 per cent of 60-64 year old males were considered economically active in 1993, 7 per cent of them were registered unemployed (Social Trends, 1994). In effect, in the five years before UK state pension eligibility, only four in 10 males were actually working.