Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

disability pension, for older relatives, in specialised areas (e.g. working on old machines),
and for commissioned work (older workers with the needed qualifications help some firms
to save training costs). A typically Polish feature is the employment of pensioners and
recipients of pre-retirement benefits; that was the case in about the half of the studied Polish
firms. Pensioners are usually recruited for casual jobs or commissioned work. Compared to
other EU countries, Poland has a higher employment rate of persons aged 65 and older than
Germany and EU-25 (Eurostat data).
In some cases, shop stewards had a divergent view on the actual hiring practice than
personnel managers, e.g. reported almost exclusive hiring of persons aged 20-odd (despite
contrary declarations of the manager). Due to the fact that I interviewed shop stewards one
year after the first round of interviews in Polish companies, a short glimpse of
developments across time was possible. In a chemicals company, the personnel managers
interviewed in 2005 had jointly reported that younger applicants were favoured in case of
new job openings. The shop steward, interviewed one year later, made out a trend towards
the broadening of the age range of potential new recruits in distinction to the time around
1994-1997, when incumbent ´50pluses´ were released and younger, cheaper workers were
hired in their place (Firm PL-13_TU). In the opinion of the shop steward, recruitment
problems in certain occupations (e.g. electricians) due to the closing of secondary
vocational schools led to a greater appraisal of middle-aged workers. The requirements
have been reduced to match the profile of remaining candidates, i.e. no command of foreign
languages and driving licence is required.
Also in the construction company, the employment chances of older workers have
changed considerably within a year. The construction branch in Poland exhibits a shortage
of qualified workforce due to a deficit of secondary vocational schools with a construction
profile, the unwillingness of younger persons to work in construction, and migration to
Western Europe (comp. also Tokarz 2007a: 11). That is a large difference to the situation in
2005 when the personnel manager had rejected older workers due to large competition on
the labour market, high labour costs and their failure to meet medical criteria for work at
high level. However, the so created opportunity for finding a new job by older persons is
constricted, as the construction industry only hires workers for temporary contracts in line
with the seasonal business cycle.
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