Campaigning for an European age diverse workforce

1. Campaigning for an European age diverse workforce

2. Wise Owls Age Audit - Methodology • Freedom of Information Act • Freedom of Information Letter • English County Councils • London Borough Councils

3. Age Audit – Statistics obtained • Age of existing workforce • Recruitment by Age • Redundancy by Age • Reemployment by Age • The UK workforce comparisons

4. Findings • Wise Owls research showed - Over 50s made up on average nearly 60% of all redundancies within the councils. This is over three times the average of the UK workforce nationally, which also shows over 50s redundancies across the UK to be at their worst rate for over a decade (ONS). Specifically, we calculated the over 50 redundancy rate by dividing the number of the over 50 redundancies by the over 50 workforce in the year previous to the redundancies. The same calculation was used for the under 50s. Therefore, the age structure of the workforce is already controlled for, and data shows that over 50s are being made redundant 18 times the rate of under 50s. • Over 50s are less than half as likely to be recruited than the under 50s. • The proportion of new recruits to the councils in the last year who were over 50 accounted for as little as 18% of recruits for County councils just and 10% of recruits in London Boroughs. • This is despite 35% of the councils’ workforce being made up of over 50s. • Analysis of the ONS data showed that since the recession began, the reemployment rate of over 50s has fallen to its lowest level in a decade. In the ‘boom’ years of 2004-2006, over 50s accounted for over 20% of all reemployment nationally. In the last year that figure fell to 16%.

5. League Tables

6. Media response • Main London newspaper • Many local newspapers • Radio • BBC documentary on Age

9. Trend of redundancies of the UK workforce % of redundancies in UK workforce by age

10. Conclusions • There is no national standardisation for age group categories • The oncoming recession will change the age demographic of workers within the council • The government are unwilling to conduct and age audit themselves • Make a European-wide age audit of all public sector workers – make comparisons • Included in the age audit should be the recruitment and redundancy statistics of the age categories i.e. How many over 50s have been recruited so that we might be able to tell whether the policy of recruitment or redundancy is ageist and not just people getting older within the organisation.

11. Survey • The Wise Owls’ Redundancy Questionnaire asked over 50 year olds who had been made redundant in the last 12 months their experience’s of the process. The findings from the questionnaire’s closed questions are as follows: • Of the 122 people that replied to the survey, 78.15% said they had been forced to take a redundancy package. 14.29% said it was voluntary, whilst 7.56% left no response to this question • 42.37% of respondents said they felt they were made redundant due to their age. 54.24% felt their age was not a factor, while 3.39% left no response to this question • 46.61% of people felt they were coerced into accepting their redundancy package. 47.46% said they weren’t. 5.93% left no response • After being made redundant, 96.49% of people looked for work. Only 32.71% of these found anything as of Feb-Mar ‘11