Presentation by Prof. Elżbieta Kryńska (Łódź University, Poland) on the occasion of the Joint EESC conference organised by the Labour Market Observatory and the European Year 2012 Coordination Group on the Activation of senior citizens - Humanising working conditions for senior workers (Brussels - 20 June 2012)

1. Elżbieta Kryńska, Professor, University of Łódź, Poland
Determinants of labour market
participation of older age groups in
Poland
Joint conference
Activation measures for senior citizens - Humanising
working conditions for senior workers
Brussels 20th June 2012

2. Employment rate of older workers (55-64) total
Source: Eurostat

3. Employment rate of older workers (55-64)
males females
Source: Eurostat

4. Average exit age from the labour force
Source: Eurostat

5. Average exit age from the labour force
males females
Source: Eurostat

6. Reasons of low labour market participation of older age groups in Poland
• Legal determinants:
– Attainment of retirement age within the statutory pension scheme (60 and 65 years);
– Exclusion of some professions from the statutory pension scheme (e.g.. miners, policemen);
– Legal protection of employment for people in pre-retirement age.
• Political determinants:
– Policy counteracting unemployment – decreasing labour supply by granting access to pre-retirement pensions and
allowances;
– Lack of continuity – pension scheme reform launched in 1999; limitation of access to the pre-retirement schemes
introduced in 2009.
• Labour environment determinants:
– Favourable pension-wage relation, especially in case of low-paid jobs;
– Possibility of obtaining pension and wage simultaneously (this also includes working in the shadow economy), which
may have positive impact on incomes;
– Decreasing the risk of loss of income (difficult situation on the labour market - relatively high unemployment rate) by
retiringearly retirement
– Requirements and threats related to the labour environment – competition of the youth, development of new
technologies, new ways of human resources management;
– Lack of age-management in the enterprises – older workers do not participate in training schemes, are assigned to
tasks for which are over-educated, are not promoted – they are „frozen” in their daily routine tasks.
• Individual and institutional determinants:
– Family and individual conditions – a need to assure care for family members and to provide mutual support – limited
institutional childcare and care of dependent adults;
– Health condition – limited health prevention.

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