As the year comes to an end, it is interesting to see what advances have taken place in Malta towards the realisation of the rights of the elderly population.
Two years ago the government committed itself to the implementation of the National Strategic Policy for Active Ageing (NSPAA) for the period 2014 to 2020.
This policy, piloted by the National Commission for Active Ageing, consists of 75 policy recommendations making up three major themes: (a) active participation in the labour market by enabling persons above statutory retirement age to remain in or re-enter employment; (b) promotion of participation in social and cultural life as a means of addressing social exclusion; and (c) independent healthy living through preventative measures and by creating a more age-friendly environment.
As things stand, both at international and European level, Malta ranks somewhere in the middle of the scale or below with regards to its policies towards pensions, health, education, employment and the social environment in which older people live.
Malta ranked just 47th from among 96 world countries in the 2015 international study by HelpAge International on the quality of life and well-being of older people. Malta improved its overall ranking by eight positions over the previous year’s 55th, but placed lower than 2013 when it ranked 38th out of 91 countries. Malta also ranked a lowly 23rd from the 24 countries in the Western Europe, North America and Australasia region.
A country that truly enables and empowers its older people as independent and active citizens
In this study Malta fared well in the health domain where it ranked 20th. It fared moderately well in the enabling environment domain where it ranked 47th, despite registering the lowest levels of satisfaction with public transport among older people (34 per cent) from all 24 countries in its region. Malta also fared moderately well in the income security domain, where it ranked 54th.
The most disappointing result was obtained in the employment and educational attainment domain where Malta ranked 86th with a mere 36.3 per cent employment rate and with a 35 per cent low levels of educational attainment among older people.
The untapped potential of older people to lead an active and healthy ageing across European Union countries is assessed by the Active Aging Index (AAI). This is an analytical tool developed by the European Commission that provides a metric for such assessment. In the overall AAI for 2014, Malta fared similarly well in most domains in the index. From among 28 EU member states Malta ranked 11th for active ageing as determined by individual characteristics and enabling environmental factors; 14th for independent, healthy and secure living; and 16th for participation in social and cultural life.
Once again Malta faltered in the provision of an adequate opportunity to older people to realise their full potential in terms of paid employment attainment. This factor, together with Malta’s low employment score for woman, which is the lowest among all EU member states, has pulled down Malta’s overall AAI ranking for 2014 to 21st among the 28 EU member states.
The European Commission had already brought to the attention of the Maltese government the country’s low activity ratio that stood at 61.6 per cent in 2011, compared to 71.2 per cent in the EU. This was mostly contributed to the low participation of female and older workers. Apparently, this notice passed unheeded as Malta was still behind its European counterparts in these categories of employment.
On paper, the NSPAA promises a novel approach to support the ageing workforce by ensuring a fair recruitment process in which older workers have an equal or special access to the occupations on offer and where such process excludes age bars and other age discriminatory mechanisms. A natural question that arises here is whether the government is actually taking concrete and effective measures to incentivise optimal levels of active ageing in the labour market or simply delivering empty rhetoric and lip-service.
The results attained so far are not at all encouraging and raise serious doubts about whether the political will actually exists to implement the recommendations outlined in the NSPAA.
Since the themes premised by the NSPAA lend themselves well to a comprehensive review approach through the use of the AAI framework, the government itself can monitor progress over time in the implementation of the policy simply by comparing successive results obtained.
A policy presented in the 2016 Budget, that is still under discussion, concerns the option for a worker to request to continue to work for four years past retirement age and delay the payment of his pension accordingly, for which he would be compensated by an improved pension of two to four per cent for each additional year in employment. This policy per se cannot be regarded as one offering the ideal solution to the realisation of the untapped potential of older people in terms of employment, since it carries no assurance that workers would be necessarily retained in the labour market. The decision in this respect has been left entirely at their employer’s discretion and injustices would ensue if such discretion is not judiciously exercised.
Consideration must also be given to the provisions of the Public Service Management (PSMC) that stipulate in substantial detail the procedure required to be followed for extensions of service of public officers. Any such extentions have to be substantiated by a strong justification and be limited to exceptional circumstances and only where there is no employee available within the ministry to perform the tasks required and a call for applications issued at the appropriate time, in advance and in the normal manner, yields no positive result. Furthermore, before submitting a request for extension of service, the ministry is required to confirm that funds are available to cover the period of extension requested and must identify an understudy to take over the duties concerned, the details of whom must be submitted with the request.
To top it all, the custom and practice in the public service is that those public officers whose service is actually extended are placed in an inferior grade than that previously occupied. These officers are furthermore denied eligibility to apply for promotion through calls for applications for the filling of vacancies in the public service/public sector. This has brought about role reversals in the workplace with an increasing number of older workers having to report to much younger superiors, which challenges traditions, violates established age norms and creates status incongruence. In contrast, a public officer who is re-employed or re-instated after resignation from the public service is placed in his former grade and in the same salary point in the case of re-instatement, with the right to apply to open calls.
The government should start seriously considering abolishing compulsory retirement age. This would provide the most effective way to enable older persons to participate in the labour market and realise their full potential in terms of employment without having to be unnecessarily exposed to humiliating situations. A country that truly enables and empowers its older people as independent and active citizens tends to be seen in a more positive light by the international community.
Denis Tanti is a former assistant director for employment and industrial relations within the Ministry for Health.