Deferred Retirement From the Labour Market

In the years to come, the age at which early retirement benefits and the state pension become available will gradually rise. This development is the result of political reform aimed at encouraging Danes to stay longer in the labour market. Denmark has just under 500,000 municipal employees. On average, they are older than the rest of the workforce, and therefore, many of the municipal employees will be among the first to feel the consequences of the reform.

The purpose of this report is to investigate the consequences of the reform for municipal workplaces. What is the role of age at today’s workplaces, and what thoughts do managers and employees have about the changed framework for retirement from the labour market? The aim of the report is to provide a basis for discussing the best way to cope locally with ongoing changes in labour-market participation among the elderly.

The report is based on 78 qualitative, anonymised interviews from eight workplaces, broken down into five sectors and three municipalities. VIVE – The Danish Centre of Applied Social Science has visited schools, preschools, road and park services, administrative offices and nursing homes, etc. and has conducted interviews with young and older employees as well as managers, trade union representatives and health and safety representatives. The survey also includes interviews with people who retired or took early retirement from the workplaces visited.

The report was commissioned and financed by Local Government Denmark and the Collective Negotiation Community of Central and Local Government Employees.