FILIPINOS retire from work at the age of between 60 and 65. They then join the almost five million senior citizens of the country or six percent of the population.
They can avail themselves of benefits and privileges set by law such as a 20 percent discount on goods and services and exemption from the value-added tax. They also get exemption from paying training fees for socio-economic programs conducted by private and government agencies, and they can be re-employed.
Labor officials reminded employers recently of provisions of Republic Act 10911 or the Anti-Age Discrimination in Employment Act that makes it illegal to discriminate against an individual in employment on account of age.
The law said it is unlawful to require a certain age for the job application process, pay workers less because they are older, or impose early retirement on the basis of age.
Employers cannot hire or promote people because they are young and pretty or they are muscular and attractive to potential customers. If they do, these employers must be able to prove, if questioned, that skill and expertise counted more than looks and age. That is a weakness in the law that errant employers could exploit.
What the law exempts are jobs where age is a requirement like in doing heavy, manual labor, and situations where age is considered in a valid employee retirement or early retirement plan.
How about people who have retired but can still work? In some countries, the elderly can be seen working in malls, banks, grocery stores. They stock shelves, push carts, lead customers to counters, guard entrances and exits.
They have grey hair, are slow and bent, but they are able to do as their younger colleagues. They are an advantage to businesses because customers tend to trust them, be respectful, and consider them as human and not cogs.
The anti-age discrimination law should also cover them because those five million senior Filipinos can still contribute to the welfare of society. They help their families and, in some cases, their children rely on their elderly parents’ pensions.
The senior citizens law says the government can help the elderly who wish to get re-employed. They can be given information from the Labor department on job-applicant matching services. Private business entities that employ senior citizens can get an additional deduction from their gross income equivalent to 15 percent of the total amount paid as salaries and wages to senior citizens.
There can be job opportunities for even the elderly but there is no push by government to consider old workers in a real anti-age discrimination law.