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Article

7 Apr 2006

Author:
John Browne, Chief Executive, BP, in Financial Times

A fixed retirement age rejects a young spirit and old skill [UK]

Why do we care about discrimination on grounds of age and why do we think that the concept of retirement needs to be redefined?...The nature of the economy has also changed. More than 70 per cent of the European economy is now based on services rather than manufacturing. Many of the jobs in both private and public services are based on knowledge gathered through experience. How can we afford to say to someone, just because they have reached 60 or 65: "You are too old to make a contribution any more"?...there is another reason: the need for a civilised society to overcome prejudice. Slowly and imperfectly we have stopped judging people simply on the basis of their gender, religion or skin colour. As with many forms of prejudice, attitudes to age run very deep. And they are reinforced by a culture in which the word "young" is synonymous with vitality and the future, and "old" is synonymous with the past - the slow and the failed.