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3. Reducing the salary gap and restoring inter-class dialogue is of the essence.

The economic crisis had the devious effect of radicalizing speech and entrench each class, group or

ethnicity within themselves in a ceaseless ‘counting of rifles’.

The process of blame pointing stemming from this isn’t always equitable or fair.

How does one go about it? Through the passing of laws promoting an increasingly independent political

class, free from the privates’ influence, and a speedy justice, which can operate on a sole weight and measure

for everyone.

In a world where noise so often overwhelms clarity, decisory spaces assume a role of growing relevance.

Progress in our societies wasn’t always conquered in a straight and vertical tangent. As parliamentarians

our foremost duty is to see the “glass half full” in that which is “half empty”, and pack with opportunities this

wagon of change.

The engines are running.

The starting shot was given.

One but has to opt over which legacy we would like to unload in the ‘future’s station’ – if when opening the

carriages our children and grandchildren will be entering a mausoleum of dusty wrecks – the spoils of a somber

past – or whether they’ll be greeted by the simple light of ideas and philanthropism.

ANEXO B

Speech by Mr. Mendes Bota, on the debate of the report GAFAROVA, about “Combating

discrimination against older persons on the labour market (doc. 13292) ”

Plenary Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Strasbourg, 4th October 2013

Mr. Presidente, Dear Colleagues,

The rise in life expectancy and pension costs for retired workers is considered by many to be widely

responsible, among other causes, for our ailing welfare systems.

Our society views these retirees as a heavy burden on the economy, and especially with the current crisis

states have been forced to slash pensions, a problem only aggravated by generally high unemployment rates,

which make it even more difficult for retired workers wanting to re-enter the working force to get jobs, in view of

the fierce market competition and the highlight on discrimination as a selection criteria.

Indeed, elder workers are ‘cursed’ with a series of stereotypes: from being technologically handicapped,

inefficient, averse to innovation, to being costly, unproductive, etc.

But the facts are facts. According to recent studies, at least a third of Europe’s population will be 60 or older

by 2050. It’s a looming problem, one that will not go away, and therefore needs addressing.

Extending the age of retirement is only the first step – perhaps the most logical one. But this amounts to

nothing when states find it increasingly difficult to pay decent pensions and the elderly are often forced to go

back to search look employment in order to support expenses.

One way to diminish age discrimination, as Mrs. Gafarova suggests in chapter 6 of her report, would be to

establish a generalized practice of tutoring programs.

Indeed, what was once held as a natural practice in the labour market, with parents passing on knowledge

to their children, the older and more experienced to the youngest, has now become a friction factor in a labour

market that finds itself hungry for younger, cheaper, labour, and businesses eager to shed more and more

senior jobs – it’s the companies first, on the back of their policies, that inadvertently ‘sponsor’ this inter-

generational schism.

Establishing widespread tutoring programs would not only benefit the young, through shared experience

and knowledge, but also the other way, from young to old, a salutary transmission would occur, of renewed

competitiveness habits – any waning senior work force could only be re-energized with this.