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Betty Ford is an employer’s dream.

The 75-year-old’s boss even has a nickname to describe her perennial performance as the company’s top sales producer. It’s Dynamo Betty.

By Jesse Semko
Photography by Bluefish Studios

The energetic Ford works for ArrKann Trailer and RV Centre in Edmonton. At a time when most her age are winding down to take in the golden years, Ford is still going strong. She’s single, her children are grown up and she loves to work. “Retirement,” Ford cheerfully says, “hasn’t even crossed my mind.” Five years ago, Ford was poached from her job in Camrose, where she sold condos and handled the health-care and food service system at a seniors’ complex. Now, compared to that type of work, selling RVs feels like a vacation. “Who needs management,” she laughs. “All I do is sell. I love it.”

Ford isn’t alone in her reluctance to retire. Canadians are working later into life, often in less stressful and demanding jobs. In fact, the share of men and women over 55 with jobs has been on the rise for years, from about 22% a decade ago to 30.5% last year. And Alberta tops all other provinces, with a whopping 39.5% of workers over 55 still punching in a nine-to-five workday. That’s where many older workers, like Ford, want to be. And clearly it’s a boon to staff- and talent-starved employers, especially in Alberta. But some experts worry that the influx of greyhairs in the workplace could have a downside for unwary employers.

The trend towards seniors staying in or returning to the workforce is partly due to the move away from mandatory retirement, which was struck down by the courts or otherwise done away with in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec some time ago and was recently eliminated in Ontario. While not a regulation or law imposed by government, the idea of stamping an employee with a best-before date — typically 65 — has long been held as an effective way for employers to open up job and promotion opportunities for younger workers and reduce the need for constant monitoring, evaluation and even dismissal of older workers whose eventual loss of physical or mental acuity may affect their job performance.

However, a political climate that favours choice has pushed the issue to the forefront of many agendas, particularly in Alberta where more businesses are trying to hold onto retirees to offset the growing labour crunch. (If you think it’s bad now, just wait. According to the Conference Board of Canada, Alberta could be 330,000 workers short of what will be needed to have a well-functioning provincial economy by 2025.)

THE REHIRING TREND

For organizations such as Enbridge and ATB Financial, that means developing strategies to keep baby boomers, now nudging the early retirement years, on longer. ATB, for instance, began approaching retirees two years ago about returning to work on a term or casual basis. “These are people who potentially have another couple of decades to give back,” says Sandy Chipchar, ATB’s senior vice-president of human resources. To date, 20 retirees – including branch managers, account managers and customer service representatives – have been lured back. Even more workers over 55 have chosen to keep working and not to take an earlier retirement.

But squeezing a little more working life out of older employees isn’t without its potential pitfalls. As more businesses eliminate mandatory retirement and follow ATB’s lead in recruiting retirees, new age-related workplace problems are expected – including increased worker absenteeism, escalating health insurance costs and even litigation.

“It’s important to see that on the horizon,” noted Christine Thomlinson, a labour lawyer and partner at Rubin Thomlinson LLP, during a talk on the next generation of workplace harassment held at the International Council of Shopping Centres 2007 Western Business Forum in Kananaskis last March. “I suspect we’ll see an explosion of case law in the next few years.”

And Thomlinson isn’t alone in her forecast.

The Alberta Human Rights Commission believes that employers turning to older workers should revaluate workplace policies to avoid future conflict hotspots. “It is a big issue,” says Nicholas Ameyah, an education and public information consultant with the commission. “There’s a bad attitude that exists when it comes tothe older worker.” Left alone, that could escalate into workplace problems.

WORKER PERFORMANCE

One of the reasons mandatory retirement was put into practice was to protect the dignity of the older worker by eliminating opportunities where his or her work might come under scrutiny. But with mandatory retirement gone, the floodgates are open and areas previously protected by collective agreements can now turn to sore spots.

When it comes to performance, productivity levels differ with age. Someone who is 55 does not have the energy level of 25- year-old. That’s something employers need to be aware of. “A workplace that focuses on productivity levels as a way of accessing merit or income may have to revisit those standards,” suggests Jennifer Koshan, a law professor at the University of Calgary. Especially if they don’t adequately take into account the situation of older workers.

For instance, say employees are required to produce so many widgets a day. An employer must make sure that amount (and the demand of the work) matches the abilities of the older worker. If those productivity levels are unrealistic, or discriminate against an employee based of their age, it could open the door to a workplace discrimination complaint.

July 2007 Contents

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