In Spain, the law expressly prohibits discrimination based on age in employment matters, including the dismissal of a person for this reason, as this would clearly violate fundamental rights. The Workers' Statute states this in Article 17.1. However, companies have found completely legal ways to send their older workers out with lights and stenographers. The architecture designed by HR departments is very broad and includes the classic incentive layoffs, which in many cases can only be accessed from a minimum age, usually in the 50s; B. Income plans, individual suspension plans or early retirement plans.
In virtually all cases the result is the same: the working person is on the street (with more or less pay) and increasingly has up to ten or more years of active life ahead of him before he can retire. In the event of early retirement, compensation plans often make it unnecessary to return to the job market. Although the years of golden early retirement payments at banks or other large Ibex companies are over. On the contrary, many of the adjustments in recent years have forced workers to remain active.
The latest and most discussed ERE (Extinction Employment Regulation File) was announced last week by Telefónica. More than 5,000 employees are expected to leave the company, mostly over the age of 55. But in the last two years, many other companies such as Banco Santander, Unicaja, Sabadell, Naturgy, Pepsico, Danone or El Corte Inglés have made certain adjustments that ultimately focus on older workers. In some of them there were even more workers willing to join the ERE than was originally agreed in the collective redundancy.
What causes companies to impose their adjustments on the most senior employees? Sources from two of the above-mentioned companies, who have experienced these processes first hand and ask not to be named as it is not a comfortable matter for company managers to talk about, insist that the main reason for this is that these processes involve seniors to fill is “purely economic in nature”. . However, they also add that this approach is seen as “a less traumatic exit bridge.”
However, there are other causes in the area of outplacement companies. Those companies making these cuts are well aware of the reasons for designing the adjustments in this way. Since 2012, Spanish law has required all companies that carry out mass layoffs of more than 50 workers to offer those affected a six-month outplacement program. This is also mandatory in France, for example, where the culture of professional outplacement is much more widespread.
From the perspective of this knowledge, Marcos Huergo, President of LHH (part of the Adecco Group), explains three reasons that fundamentally lead companies to seek the exit of people over 50 years old. First, they have higher salaries and more favorable conditions, so they are usually more expensive to maintain. In addition, “these are the least digital profiles and there is no doubt that all companies are faced with technological transition processes to a greater or lesser extent,” says Huergo. Many companies assume that these employees may have a lower ability to learn, but above all (this is the third reason) “they expect that they will not get the return on their investment with these workers who have fewer years of work ahead of them “profitable.” in training.” This happens especially in the financial and technological sectors, but also in other sectors such as logistics and hospitality, which have created more than 10,000 jobs in this way, as well as in all types of companies, large and SMEs.
Apart from this alleged technological mismatch, various sources agree that the resort to adapting the workforce to older workers is due to the combination of being a cheaper tool in the medium term (since they are more expensive to maintain due to higher salaries). ) and at the same time they emphasize again that this is the least traumatic option. According to Orestes Wensell, general manager of Talent Solutions, another of the largest outplacement companies in the Manpower group, this is the most widespread idea among the HR teams responsible for developing these plans: “Managers want to reduce as much as possible. “ the number of those affected; that the resignations are as voluntary as possible; and lower the early retirement age so that more people can be reached.” Although Wensell also insists that the transformation processes that society is undergoing are the causes of these adjustments, “they are not carried out because it is cheapest or easiest is,” he emphasizes. In fact, it is not good for the company in terms of reputation, although it is not usually frowned upon from the perspective of shareholders and investors.
In any case, it could be said that the early retirement schemes are the friendliest side of the adjustments and that the rest of the staff reduction incentive plans are just the tip of the iceberg of a problem that affects almost 850,000 people over 50 in Spain, which corresponds to practically one in three unemployed people. However, the seriousness of the situation is most evident in the length of time it takes for these workers to find another job. While in general 25% of all unemployed people have been unemployed for two or more years, this proportion averages over 42% for those over 50 years of age.
This is not the same in many European countries, where there are not as many adjustments on the age side, union sources point out. This is also reflected in the figures from the latest quarterly labor market observation by the economic research center Fedea, which show that Spain accounts for 27% of all unemployed people over 50 living in the EU. This situation has worsened significantly in recent years, as Spain is now the fourth of the 27 countries with the highest proportion of older unemployed people, whereas before the 2008 financial crisis it was the fourth country with the fewest older unemployed people.
“They probably don’t call me because of my age.”
Until 2020, MA worked in an SME that sold audio material for almost 20 years. His company put him out of work after going through several ERTEs (temporary layoffs) since the pandemic. The first thing he did was register on job portals such as Linkedin or Infojobs and on Sepe. He receives daily morning and noon alerts and has had two or three interviews. Since he will continue to collect the benefit for a while, he assures that he “will not do everything that comes out.” He's trying to apply for jobs in the field he's dedicated to for two decades. It's clear to him why he sometimes submits an application in which he meets the requirements 100% and then they don't even call him: “It's most likely because of my age,” he says.
As an opportunity arises, MA does what all job search handbooks say at any age: upskill to improve your employability. “I had a lot of experience, but not the accreditation,” he says. In their case, they have focused on obtaining professional certificates, which are titles that certify the experience of workers but for which they have no previous academic training. However, he calls for an improvement in the effectiveness of public employment services: “Sepe occasionally sends me a course that is good, but recently, for example, they suggested two to me.” One was on corporate social responsibility and the other was on management skills and team management; and I said to myself, “Where am I going with this?”
Lawyer in Venezuela, unemployed in Spain
RAD, who will not have her Venezuelan title as a lawyer recognized this Tuesday in Madrid. Claudio Alvarez
Another case of difficulties in finding work concerns RA D, who is 60 years old and has been unemployed for several months. “I have to state a lower age on my resume, but when they see me, it’s nothing,” he complains. “If the job has a physical aspect, they don't tell you that you won't be hired because of your age, even if you have experience in hospitals or cafeterias, but in the end, with all types of work, you realize that you want all day only young, prepared and available people,” adds this Venezuelan with a very special story. RAD is a lawyer and has had a successful legal career in her country for more than 20 years. Since 2019, shortly after his arrival in Spain, he has been trying unsuccessfully to homologate his titles. He found work on a digital customer service platform advising customers on returns and complaints, which was “a better fit with his training.” But that job ended and he now collects 600 euros in unemployment benefit. “I don't want to spend my unemployment benefit, I still have a year to collect it, and that's why I'm desperate for work,” he says.
RAD is one of the unemployed people who took part in the Madrid City Council's personalized orientation program “Journey to Employment”. “They give you interview techniques and have also enrolled me in courses on how to use digital tools, where I meet people like me who are between 55 and 70 years old, very well prepared and have been on for five or six years are looking for a job.” But he comes back to the question of age: “With my experience of the last four years and an accreditation course that I have in customer service, I am looking for work in this sector, but my consultant for Journey to Employment was the first thing she told.” I said, “For that, work only has to be phone support, in person at your age, forget it.”
“They only call me to cover the injured.”
Raquel lives in Avilés (Asturias). He is 52 years old and has worked in the informal economy all his life, in both hospitality and cleaning. “I knew that this was not in line with my skills and, since I had no training, I took a degree in social integration,” she remembers. He graduated in 2020 and assures that in his industry he has a lifetime of experience living in working-class neighborhoods and “holding the hand of many people”. He currently sees himself as a “personally and professionally grown person,” he says, and more productive than ever: “I’ve gotten to the point where I know what it’s all about.”
But the reality looks different. “I am the social worker that all third sector organizations and companies would raffle off, but so far I have only had access to places if they cannot find someone to fill a temporary position or a replacement,” she complains. And she assures that her superiors have expressed more than once that they would like to keep her in the company, but cannot do so because the position has “different age guidelines”.
“I had to go back to work to feel valued”
Even for people over 50, high qualifications and a successful professional career are no guarantee of success when looking for work. Antonio (not his real name), 56 years old, worked for more than 25 years in one of the country's most important consulting firms and therefore asks to remain anonymous. A few months ago he lost his job as part of one of the many staffing adjustments these companies constantly make. His company enabled him to take part in a LHH outplacement program for six months and he values this experience very positively. “They helped me make my resume more attractive, manage my social media searches, and build a personal brand. But the most complicated thing they also help you with is dealing well with impatience. “Losing a job at this age is an emotional rollercoaster with lots of ups and downs,” he says.
The network of contacts he acquired during this course enabled him to take part in several national and international competitions. “In Europe, I was never asked my age at any of the trials I took part in; blatant ageism is more prevalent in Spain,” he claims. Through one of the contacts he made at the beginning of his career in a sector other than consulting, which he found by chance, he began working in a new position as manager of technological transformation projects in an important national company. “I never stopped training, nor did I stop mentally preparing myself to lose my job,” he explains, “when colleagues' children start joining your team, and almost all of them left before you , know that your time has come.” will come. [del despido] because it is very difficult for companies to manage three or four generations at the same time.” And how does it feel to go back to work? “I needed it, not so much economically but psychologically and socially, to feel valued and continue to contribute to society,” he replies.
“I learned not to put my age on my resume.”
Jordi Rotllan, who lost his job at the age of 50 and has found work again, this Friday in his home in Girona. Massimiliano Minocri
There are companies that do not take age into account when recruiting. This is the case of the Spanish temporary employment agency Eurofirms, which hired 52-year-old Jordi Rotllan for its structural staff, who had a very bad experience in unsuccessfully looking for a job. After running a digital consulting and small appliances business as a freelancer for more than a decade, he had to close his business for family reasons and spent a year without work. At the end of this period he was already 50 years old, had not been on the market for months and had no training, an unflattering cocktail. “I started very badly because I was desperate because it was the first time in my life that I was looking for a job and I chose to go from being a nurse to being a waiter,” he remembers. However, his story has a happy ending and now Rotllan, who is a digital tester at ETT, proudly says that he is the oldest in the team: “But you can’t tell at all,” he warns. From the time he was looking for a job, he doesn't forget the most important lesson he learned: “If there's anything I've learned during this time, it's not to put my age on my resume to show off.”
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