Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

learning to the needs of older persons are pursued less often (BIBB 2005: 3-4). Similar
analyses on firm-based training of older workers in Polish companies are missing.
The low inclusion of older persons in further training is a symptom of a general malaise
in German (and probably also Polish) companies – the concentration of incentives for work
and promotion on workers up to their 40 th year (Buck 2006: 8-9). This results both in lower
motivation and narrow specialisation of workers beyond that threshold, and in early wear of
middle-aged workers (Morschhäuser 2005: 296; Wolff 2000). Low investments in further
training of older workers are explained by firms with the shorter depreciation period.
However, this argument is inconsistent as each qualification, also of graduates, becomes
obsolete with time and needs an update (Behrens 1999: 111).
4.1.4. Working Conditions and Health Management
The number of accidents at work, reduction of working time and the quality of work 44
correlate significantly (in the first case negatively, in the other cases positively) with
employment rates of persons in higher age brackets (Davoine 2006: 65-66, 72-73). Physical
risk factors (environmental risks, physical load/position risks and biological, chemical and
radiation risks) have decreased across EU for workers aged 55+ in the last ten years,
“although it cannot be determined whether this is due to an adaptation of organisational
models (…) or rather because of the early exit (…) of workers engaged in physically
demanding work” (European Foundation 2008: 37-9). The fact that physical risk factors
have increased for workers aged 45-54 years would suggest the second interpretation. A
sustainable age management should therefore take into account working conditions of
workers of all ages.
Poles have the second-highest ratings with regard to the negative impact of work on
health, and the highest rate of health risk resulting from physical working conditions, while
only ¼ of Germans report such effects (European Foundation 2007: 61, 64). According to
the Polish Labour Inspectorate, working conditions in Poland are rather bad – offices are
crowded, factory floors lack social facilities, occupational safety and health is deficient, and
opportunities for telework are much less developed than in Western Europe due to lower
computerisation rate (Halik 2002: 25, 27; European Foundation 2003: 23-24). I thus assume
44 Indicators of ´quality of work´ are inter al.: high participation in training, low in-work poverty rate, low rate
of accidents at work, very high percentage of part-time employment (Davoine 2006: 69).
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