Age Discrimination

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The expression age discrimination ( English ageism ) describes a social and economic disadvantage of persons or groups due to their age. In the event of discrimination, it is made more difficult for those affected to participate appropriately in working life and in social life. Mostly the discrimination of (allegedly) old people is meant, but occasionally also that of (allegedly) young people. A case of age discrimination can also exist if certain cohorts are preferred (e.g. by looking for people in their first year of employment in job advertisements).

Of age discrimination is sometimes even speaking, if one advantage is granted only members of certain age cohorts, provided that those who do not belong to these vintages, do not accept the justification for favoring and evaluate them as "arbitrary".

Discrimination as a socio-psychological process

In the case of age discrimination, three processes take place simultaneously:

  • a label, d. H. the assignment of a person to an age group
  • a stereotyping , d. H. the negative evaluation of characteristics of a group of people (here: the age group)
  • a discrimination, d. H. a negative behavior towards the person due to the associated stereotypical characteristics

Terminology

Age discrimination can in principle be directed against any age group, but it is usually directed against people above or below a certain age. Then one speaks precisely of Old n discrimination or ageism.

In the Anglo-Saxon countries, prejudice against a person based on their age has been discussed as ageism since the 1960s . This expression was coined in the late 1960s by the gerontologist Robert Neil Butler . If such a prejudice ( bias ) leads to discrimination against a person, it is called age discrimination.

Compared to discrimination such as racism or sexism , age discrimination is the least explored in social categories.

The process of stereotyping primarily addresses perception. Ageism includes three mechanisms of typical stereotyping: prejudice (in the affective area), discrimination (in behavior) and stereotyping itself (in the cognitive area). In some cases, the age-specific perceptions of a situation cancel each other out: According to a survey by the TNS Research Institute on April 9 and 10, 2008, B. 57 percent of 18 to 29 year olds said the grand coalition represented the interests of the older generation, while 55 percent of those over 60 years old stated that the grand coalition represented the interests of the younger generation; Only 27 percent of 18 to 29 year olds and only 17 percent of senior citizens believe that their own generation is preferred.

This phenomenon can be explained using the example of the dispute over the appropriate level of pensions today and in the future. Of central importance here is the idea that someone has of distributive justice . A retiree will generally tend to feel that their pension is “too low” and discriminated against, while contributors will usually think their contributions are “too high” and consider themselves disadvantaged.

Dealing with the attributes "old" and "young"

In a guideline for non-discriminatory language use , the Austrian State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labor, Christine Marek , states that the attribute "old" often has the function of reinforcing terms that are already meant to be derogatory (example: "old witch"); the attribute “young”, on the other hand, often stands for inexperience, naivety and infantility. Speakers and writers would have to be careful not to trigger appropriate connotations when using these attributes or their synonyms .

Discrimination against people above a certain age

The student song Gaudeamus igitur says: “ Post iucundam iuventutem, / post molestam senectutem, / nos habebit humus! ”(German:“ After a happy youth / after an arduous age / the earth will have us. ”) The second half of life is assessed here as“ arduous ”. In the song no distinction is made between factors that are “in the nature of things”, especially the inexorable physical decline and the approach to death on the one hand, and man-made “hardships” in the form of interactional and structural discrimination on the other . The concept of active aging developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the 1990s is an attempt to maintain and promote the skills that older people have.

Explanatory approaches

There are various approaches to explaining the phenomenon of age discrimination.

Economic struggle for distribution between the generations

In connection with financing difficulties in health care and the pension system, the question is repeatedly raised whether the use of medical services and pension benefits by the elderly is not parasitic. "Anyone who sits in top shape on the park bench at the age of 65 creates social aversion," says z. B. Meinhard Miegel. Especially old people who have remained childless are often confronted with the accusation of egoism or a “After us the deluge” mentality. They are assumed to have shied away from the financial and personal sacrifices of raising children, made no personal contribution to the continued existence of the social security system and instead “had a good life” and asked “the children of others” to pay for their old age .

From a statistical point of view, the group of childless people achieves an above-average income during the middle phase of life (due to their strong focus on gainful employment) and pays correspondingly higher contributions to the state coffers and social security . At retirement age, however, their pension payments (due to the pay-as-you-go system in the pension insurance ) must be raised by “the children of the others”, and in the case of need for care there is only the possibility of care by relatives in exceptional cases . As a pensioner, this group causes relatively high costs (also because of the high pension entitlements). The argument that single people die earlier than married people does not seem tenable on the basis of the available data.

In fact, both retirees and pension insurance contributors are victims of the falling wage share and falling real incomes in Germany: if wages rise, pensions rise, if they fall, pensions would also have to fall according to the pension formula (which, however, is considered to be politically unenforceable ).

Horst W. Opaschowski ( Foundation for Future Issues of the tobacco company BAT) rejects the cliché of the “greedy elderly” referring to a study carried out in 2010: This had “proven that the elderly are very much ready to make sacrifices for the young. Parents over 65 give their children seven times what they get back in financial terms. "

Disincentives through "seniority privileges"

Especially from a neoliberal point of view, measures adopted to protect the elderly often have paradoxical effects. B., for whom there is special protection against dismissal , would therefore be hired more hesitantly than those who can be dismissed relatively easily. In a discussion paper from February 2006 , the BDA put forward the following thesis: “Many collective agreements still grant additional benefits based solely on the age of the employee. These so-called seniority privileges, which were originally introduced under different economic conditions, are increasingly proving to be an obstacle to employment and, in particular, to the recruitment of older workers, because they artificially make the employment of older people more expensive than younger ones or impose additional restrictions in labor law. "

Change in values

Age discrimination is also described as a peculiarity of western societies. It is criticized, for example, that the only thing that counts here is who can still sell his labor or at least have something to offer as a consumer. Older adults appear as a financial burden while young people are seen as an investment in the future.

Traditionally, however, the term “age” has a positive connotation. This is shown by terms such as " Senate / Senator" (from the Latin senex 'old' ), but also the term council of elders ( connotation : in difficult situations, communities need the wisdom and knowledge of their oldest members). The Fourth Commandment of Judaism and Christianity ("You shall honor your father and your mother") points in the same direction .

This appreciation of age still exists, but in the case of age discrimination it is largely masked by a rather critical attitude towards age with completely different connotations (senile, poorly performing, ill , costly). In this case, the discrimination consists in the assumption that every person above a certain age has the characteristics mentioned, without this being checked in individual cases. But also the opposite (the “provocative” fitness of many seniors) is capable of triggering resentments against seniors, whom many do not allow decades of receiving a pension: “For millennia it has been customary for people to die until they die could have worked. Today, however, the prevailing attitude is that one has a right to be cared for by society for the last 15 to 20 years at the end of one's life. 'That can and will be questioned,' said Meinhard Miegel, “.

However, there are hardly any empirical studies on the question of whether earlier and non-European cultures really did not or do not discriminate against old people, and to what extent respect for old age has disappeared. At least within the families there are strong indications that a high level of intergenerational solidarity has been preserved, e.g. B. through the early transfer of wealth to the next generation (s) and measures other than cash or in-kind benefits to support the younger generation.

As the anthropologist Joseph Henrich pointed out, the authority that old people have in a society disappears as the norms change accelerate. Traditions whose meaning no one understands only prove themselves in stable societies; In a world that is changing fast, traditions stand in the way of people. An individual's ability to adopt norms is greatest in youth and then wanes. Henrich describes it as someone who is 70 years old today, representing norms “from another world”.

Promotional images

In the media sector, a strong emphasis on youth, physical attractiveness and sexuality can be observed, while older people are much more likely to be ignored or portrayed negatively. For example, the largely lacking range of simple and user-friendly electronic devices designed for older users can be seen as purely trend-setting.

The myth of the “ advertising-relevant target groups ” plays an important role in age discrimination : 14 to 49-year-olds traditionally belong to these groups. Television and consumption habits of older age groups are considered to be negligible in the advertising industry. In fact, in no age group in Germany is the average purchasing power per person higher than among 50 to 59 year olds.

Age discrimination as repression

Many people approach old age with fear. What might be considered a natural process under other conditions is valued as a social problem under the conditions of youth madness. Ageism reflects a deep-seated insecurity among young and middle-aged people about realities such as aging itself, possible disability, the feeling of powerlessness and uselessness, and ultimately the approach to death. Individuals who are dependent on their physical appearance experience a loss of self-esteem in old age.

The paradox of this behavior is that old age discrimination (like discrimination against disabled people) is one of those forms of discrimination in which the perpetrator-victim relationship can be reversed relatively quickly (e.g. through an accident that results in the identity characteristic " healthy "eliminated), which makes those affected" look old ". In this respect there can actually be even less interest in discriminating against older people than with other forms of discrimination.

The denial of old age is therefore a defense mechanism, with which the negative qualities that are ascribed to seniors are to be suppressed.

These negative traits include childishness, inability to make decisions, unattractiveness, lack of independence, loneliness and bitterness. In the public perception, the image of old people is shaped by those people who live socially isolated in retirement homes.

Actual circumstances are often glossed over by those affected.

Manifestations

job

The International Labor Organization (ILO) stated in 2002 that "age discrimination is deeply rooted in working life" and that "ensuring equal employment in all age groups [...] across the entire labor market has failed". On the occasion of the conclusion of the European Year for Active Aging and Solidarity between the Generations , the heads of government of the EU member states meeting in the European Council emphasized in December 2012 that in the fight against the negative consequences of demographic aging in the states they represent, the extension of the working life of Workers play a central role and that therefore any form of age discrimination must be prevented.

Age discrimination in the world of work includes openly declared or hidden age limits in the labor market, which can appear from job advertisements to further training , promotion and dismissal.

The openly declared age limits include the regulations of the federal states on the maximum age up to which someone can acquire civil servant status . As a rule, in North Rhine-Westphalia an applicant can no longer be accepted into the civil service at the age of 36, whereas in Hesse this only applies to 51-year-olds. "Too old" candidates who want to work in their trained profession and those of the civil service status is denied, at best is open to the possibility to apply in another state or in the employee status to act.

In the Federal Republic of Germany, in the mid-2000s, 41% of the companies did not have any employees older than 41 years. The employment rate of older workers (55 to 64 years of age) was only 41.2% at that time (according to the 5th report on the elderly in 2005), although it would make economic sense to give those able to work the opportunity to work up to retirement age. There is also no evidence that older workers are generally less competitive than younger workers. The German Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs expressly rates the assumption that older workers are on average less productive than younger workers as a “myth” in 2012. In the relevant publication, the ministry quotes data from Eurostat according to which the employment rate of both men and women between the ages of 55 and 64 rose more sharply in Germany between 2000 and 2010 than in most other countries of the European Union.

The Nordisk Ministerråd presented in 2004 in a study of older workers in four Scandinavian countries that:

“The competitiveness of seniors lies in the fact that

  • the companies have lower costs for training and further education for senior citizens,
  • companies have lower costs for sick leave for seniors,
  • when it comes to recruiting new employees in a wide variety of areas, seniors are more likely than their younger colleagues to have the skills required by the company. When it comes to recruiting new engineers, two of the core competencies of senior citizens are in the top three of the most requested competencies in companies. "

One form of age discrimination consists in dismissing older workers on the grounds that they have had more sick days than younger colleagues in the same company. According to a ruling by the Baden-Württemberg State Labor Court, dismissal due to an excessive number of absent days is only permissible if the person to be dismissed has reported sick significantly more often than is usual for people of the same age in the same profession.

Incidentally, the decline in performance with increasing age is often not a sign of declining performance, but a consequence of the negative expectations of the environment. Negative comments about declining abilities in old age unsettled and demotivated those affected. A lawsuit for age discrimination when applying for a job is only promising if it is not a case of “AGG hopping”. Claimants must demonstrate that they have a serious interest in taking up work at the company they applied for.

Annuity or pension

Since the 1970s there has been a consensus among the German population that early retirement schemes are an appropriate means of lowering the unemployment rate . In general, there was little resistance to early retirement among those affected.

For the year 2006, the federal government states: "We can now assume that two different cultures have developed at the end of working life: Workers who can realize their work themselves and still have the necessary skills, energies and health. want to work long hours, often beyond retirement age. Others with little room for maneuver and health problems would rather invest their remaining energies in the new freedoms of an early exit from working life. "

A case of “too old age” discrimination may exist when someone who is able and willing to be successful is prevented from working against his will on the basis of his or her age.

Refused (continued) employment

The desire to retire early in Germany, which was still widespread in the 1990s, is tending to decrease: while in 1999 half of those in employment wanted to retire at the age of 60 at the latest, this proportion was less than a third of those surveyed in 2005. On the other hand, the willingness and willingness to continue to work even after the statutory retirement age is increasing. According to a study in 2010, almost half (47 percent) of the 1500 participants answered the question of whether they would still like to be gainfully employed after they retired with “yes” or “more or less yes”.

The change in mentality has various causes:

  1. The gap between earned and old- age income is tending to increase, so that in many cases there is a risk of old-age poverty when they leave working life and senior citizens are forced (insofar as their state of health allows this) to remain employed even after they have reached retirement age.
  2. Being employed is important for many people's social status and self-esteem. These people are trying to keep their old status even though they would be financially secure as retirees.
  3. In particular, highly qualified and specialists are increasingly difficult to replace on the German labor market; It is signaled to them that they would like to continue working in the company in which they worked before reaching retirement age.

The " Seniors Union " assesses the Federal Constitutional Court ruling of 1959 as out of date, according to which the legislature may set an age at which the continuation of the profession is to be prohibited.

In the summer of 2013, a 65-year-old teacher working in Frankfurt am Main filed a lawsuit against his retirement against his will. According to two rulings of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) of October 16, 2007 and October 12, 2010, however, it does not constitute a case of age discrimination if an employee is retired against his will when he reaches the statutory age limit . On September 13, 2011, however, the ECJ ruled that a collective agreement that provides for a rigid age limit of 60 for pilots violates Directive 2000/78 / EC (ECJ, ruling of September 13, 2011 - C 447 / 09 -).

The thesis that there is a widespread desire among employees to remain in employment for a long time was questioned by a survey published by the Financial Times Deutschland in 2012 : Nine out of ten employees would have the prospect of receiving full retirement benefits at the age of 67, rated as a "horror performance".

education

In 2005 there were more than 18,000 students over the age of 60 in Germany . History, law and economics are particularly popular with seniors. One aspect of age discrimination is that teachers often assume that there are tensions between senior students on the one hand and younger students, sometimes also teachers, on the other in the subject areas that are affected by a high proportion of senior students. At the center of the tensions is usually the question of whether people who will not use their newly acquired qualifications professionally should benefit from scarce resources (seats in lecture halls, attention and time teachers). The Federal Ministry of Education and Research supports the study of senior citizens.

Health care, care and therapy

Dealing with seniors as "risk groups"

In the context of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic , it was found that the risk of a severe course of infection with the pathogen is significantly higher in the elderly than in other infected people, and that the likelihood of the fatal outcome of the infection is particularly high in the very old. There is therefore a broad consensus among scientists, politicians and society that the risk of infection in the elderly must be reduced to a particularly high degree.

Sergei Sobyanin , Mayor of Moscow , ordered therefore on that over all citizens of Moscow, 65 years of age or older , and until 14 April 2020 curfew was imposed chronically ill and only the persons named on 26 March.

In Switzerland , the canton of Uri imposed a curfew on seniors in the 2020 corona crisis. This decision was overturned by the Federal Office of Justice on March 21, 2020. The canton of Ticino imposed a shopping ban on seniors on March 21, 2020.

In Germany, the virologist Christian Drosten pointed out that an infection with Covid-19 is fatal in 20 to 25 percent of those affected among those over 80 years of age. He recommended that senior citizens in this age group no longer look after their grandchildren until October 2020. Drosten, an influential expert among politicians, did not recommend a special contact ban for senior citizens ordered by the state.

However, Helge Braun (CDU), head of the Federal Chancellery , announced on March 28, 2020 that even if the restrictions decided on in the wake of the corona crisis were relaxed for younger people, “[older] people [...] will stay much longer than younger people expect contact restrictions ”. Franziska Giffey (SPD), on the other hand, declared on April 9, 2020 in her capacity as Federal Minister responsible for senior issues that she was not of the opinion “that we should open a two-class society between those who are allowed out [,] and those who have to stay inside. “One could appeal to the elderly to behave sensibly instead of trying to forbid them to leave the house. “Older people are responsible citizens,” emphasized the minister.

In April, the German Institute for Human Rights issued a statement entitled “Effective protection of the human rights of the elderly, including in the corona pandemic”. The institute considers the thesis correct that the state must try to protect the right to life and physical integrity of older people effectively on its territory. However, it condemns the “misjudgment” “that all older people are in need of protection because it fails to recognize that older people do not form a homogeneous group, but that the risk depends on the individual state of health and life situation. If it is emphasized too often that older people are above all in need of protection, negative images of old age are affirmed, which can then also be the basis for discriminatory regulations when dealing with the crisis, for example if older people are required to severely restrict their rights for a longer period of time without compensatory measures should accept. "

Rationing the receipt of medical services

“The social law stipulates that the health insurance companies may only pay for services that are 'sufficient', 'necessary' and 'economical'. […] When assessing age […] the majority agrees that in case of doubt they would give younger patients priority over older ones, although there are definitely different emphases. One group is willing to spend 10 to 20 times on children than on an 80 year old. Another group would focus more on the 20 to 30 year olds. "

However, the Federal Minister of Health at the time, Ulla Schmidt, stated before the German Medical Congress in 2005 : "One thing is clear: there will be no explicit rationing in the sense that medically necessary and sensible services are withheld."

From their 70th birthday, women in Germany no longer receive an invitation to a mammography screening, the most important measure for the early detection of breast cancer , the most common type of cancer in women. From their 70th birthday, women in Germany have to pay for a mammography screening themselves. The age limit is arbitrary insofar as the remaining life expectancy of an otherwise healthy 70-year-old woman can be reduced by decades if breast cancer is not detected in time. In December 2019, the rural women in the Lower Saxony district of Stade called for the age limit to be raised to 75, since the probability that a woman will die of new breast cancer only becomes negligible after the age of 75.

Age-related rationing measures are usually based on thinking in terms of “remaining life expectancy”: According to this, the costs of treatment for a person rise steeply (retrospectively, from the point at which a person dies) the closer they are to death. It is therefore tempting to refuse medical services to people who are (supposedly) near death or to bill them or their relatives for them. The triage problem known from disasters is transferred to medical "normal operation". But even if z. If, for example, in an emergency situation the health care system does not have sufficient capacity to adequately care for all those in need of treatment, discontinuation of treatment for the purpose of treating another person is not permitted, according to the German Society for Human Rights. The prohibition of discrimination in the Basic Law prohibits differentiations based on age, disability, gender, social status, ethnic origin or religious affiliation or the value of the further life of the person concerned (attributed to images of age, racist or ableist stereotypes).

Doubt and Telser criticize the inefficiency of rationing measures in everyday health operations: "Rationing is a means of war management that does not respect the preferences of consumers and therefore causes high efficiency losses, which are only in the short term and in the greater interest of common survival in extreme threat Be bought. "

At least in Great Britain the tendency of the tax-financed health care system to exclude certain age groups from treatment in the course of rationing measures can be observed: there is systematically a "clinical prioritization" (ie a number of points that decrease with age when drawing up waiting lists) or even a withholding medical services practiced depending on age.

In March 2020, providers of a “triage tool” assume that triage situations will arise in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the help of the new app, the medical staff “at the front” [sic!] Is able to decide within a minute which of the patients asking for help should be given priority. In Italy, the triage case occurred as early as mid-March 2020 when a ventilator was not available for all COVID-19 patients who should have been ventilated. As a result, young people without previous illnesses, whose chances of recovery are good, are given priority, while old people with previous illnesses, whose chances of recovery are poor, receive lower priority.

Exclusion from donating blood

Internal regulations of the German Red Cross , according to which people who are willing to donate blood should be turned away from a certain age (69 years for all donors, 60 years for first-time donors), were repealed in 2009. This step is justified by the fact that there is a “development towards an 'age-irrelevant society', ie [a] 'one is as old as one feels society'” and that there is an increasing shortage of blood reserves. It is now at the discretion of the doctors to make an approval for blood donation dependent on the individual state of health of the person willing to donate. This should give more weight to the so-called “biological age” when assessing the ability to donate. The Austrian Red Cross took a similar decision back in 2008.

Inadequate care

According to a report by the Social Association of Germany , elderly discrimination is evident in nursing homes and old people's homes , with at least 10,000 people dying prematurely every year due to neglect and insufficient care (see care scandals ). Since spring 2001, the Federal Republic has had to answer to the UN for the grievances in old people's and nursing homes .

The Medical Service of the Central Associations of the Health Insurance Funds (MDS) found the following quality deficiencies in its 2nd Nursing Quality Report according to § 118 Abs. 4 SGB XI in August 2007 after 4,215 visits to nursing homes and 3,736 examinations of care services in the years 2004 to 2006:

  • Deficiencies in nutrition and fluid intake: inpatient 34 percent, outpatient 30 percent
  • Deficits in pressure ulcer prophylaxis / care: inpatient 36 percent, outpatient 42 percent
  • Health-endangering care: ten percent of home residents, six percent outpatient care

In 2006, the delegates of the 109th German Medical Association called for concrete measures to strengthen the rights of those in need of care. Effective control of providers of care services is necessary and home visits should be more frequent and without prior notice.

The quality of the care should be guaranteed by § 80 SGB ​​XI . Since 2009, § 112 SGB ​​XI has ensured the quality of care.

Causes of Neglect for the Elderly

Rolf D. Hirsch sees various causes for improper and age-discriminatory therapeutic treatment of the elderly:

  • Ageism: general prejudice that prevents the elderly from adequately realizing the demands of the elderly on society and care provision (Illhardt 1995)
  • Psychiatry: lack of equality between the mentally ill and the somatically ill
  • Gerontophobia : lack of willingness to deal with problem areas of age and aging
  • Gerontophilia: childization and belittling of the old
  • Therapeutic nihilism: prejudice that old people are no longer treatable or "unworthy of therapy"
  • Ignorance: Prejudice that geriatric psychiatry does not require any special knowledge
  • Cost-benefit balance: Discourse on the economic burden on society due to demographic aging in connection with the above. Thinking in terms of “ remaining life expectancy” (see the actuarial term “longevity risk”).

politics

The Federal Chancellor of the FRG Konrad Adenauer was 73 years old when he took office and left office at the age of 87. Adenauer was a member of the Bundestag until his death at the age of 91. In the final stages of the 2016 election campaign for President of the United States of America , Hillary Clinton , then 69, and Donald Trump, then 70, competed against each other.

In some countries of the Federal Republic of Germany, however, there is a maximum age that someone may not exceed who is running for the office of directly elected (Lord) Mayor . This also applies to previous office holders. In 2011, on the day of the election, candidates in Baden-Württemberg , Bavaria , Lower Saxony , Rhineland-Palatinate , Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia were not allowed to be older than 65 years, in Hesse not older than 67 years. The same was true in 2011 in some of the countries for district candidates .

The 2011 regulations outside of Hesse were criticized for being outdated, as the standard retirement age for civil servants was gradually being raised to 67 years. In addition, the example of Konrad Adenauer shows that politicians of retirement age do not have to be overwhelmed by their tasks, especially since they need the vote of the voters in order to carry out their office, who in the event of an election the majority do not consider old age to be decisive.

In addition, then load when a 64-year-old person wants to run for political office, the "guillotine date" 65th birthday to manipulations one: As city or municipal councils and district assemblies on the date of election of the head office officials in their local authority in If you decide within a given time corridor, it is possible for people who are approved by the council or district council majority to be able to run by setting an appointment before their 65th birthday; if, on the other hand, an election date is decided shortly after this birthday, the possibility of standing for candidacy does not apply by law.

Some countries have now (as of November 2019) raised their age limit to 67 years.

Participation in road traffic

Driving a motor vehicle places high demands on the mental and sensory functions of a person. Since the latter in particular are subject to degradation processes at an early stage in life, many expect older drivers to have an increased risk of accidents. Statistics show, however, that the proportion of those who culpably caused an accident decreases from the age of 25 . From the age of 70 onwards, the number of injuries per kilometer driven increases again; However, it only reaches the level of 18-24 year olds in drivers over 80 years of age (of which individual subgroups, depending on gender, training and origin, again show significantly higher risk values). Although "the withdrawal or denial of a driver's license [...] is a legally very serious measure" because it affects "the right to unhindered mobility guaranteed in all European countries", the demand is repeated that older drivers have to "get out of the Be drawn ".

other areas

Discrimination (in the sense of being disadvantaged in the allocation of opportunities in a wide variety of areas of life) also applies to citizens' ability to buy goods and services. Age at the time of taking out and the amount of premiums for life, health and travel cancellation insurance plays an important role. Age is an important factor in the granting of loans or mortgages by financial institutions (it is ascertained in a seemingly neutral manner when checking the legal capacity). In the credit scoring process, advanced age has a negative impact on the value of the points.

In 2005, the term “ longevity risk ” was shortlisted for the “bad word of the year ”. This actuarial term defines the fact that people in developed countries have increasingly higher life expectancies as a "problem" (as if the problems of financing old-age pensions were caused by people "simply not wanting to die").

The Court of Appeal dealt with the question of whether a rigid age limit of 70 years is permissible in the racing regulations of a harness racing association: In any case, it sees if this age limit does not relate to any medical, e.g. B. gerontological, occupational or sports medical findings, a violation of the prohibition of age discrimination as fulfilled.

Reactions

Self-help organizations

Many groups have formed in different countries to fight against age discrimination. These include:

Unions

In the United States, numerous unions have taken up the fight against age discrimination. A prominent example is the Writers Guild of America West, an association of screenwriters that has been involved in extensive legal battles with the entertainment industry since 2002 to end age discrimination against screenwriters.

Extent of being affected by age discrimination

Age discrimination does not affect all people of a certain age to the same extent. Rich or powerful men are still considered attractive in old age. It remains to be seen whether this evaluation arises from a pure utility (for example with a view to the inheritance law implications of a possible partnership) or whether biological influences play a role. On the other hand, it is a fact that poverty and belonging to the female gender have a strong influence on the risk of experiencing discrimination in old age.

Discrimination against younger people

“Youth discrimination” does not only exist in the form of discriminatory behavior, but also in the form of discriminatory thinking (according to this thinking, for example, all teenagers like rock music, are immature and unruly and use slang) and speaking. The crucial difference between “youth discrimination” and “old age discrimination” is that the phase of “being too young” ends with most people being accepted as “people of the right age”, while old people are not discriminated against by just being Getting older can stop.

Legal minimum age

According to the prevailing legal opinion, no case of “discrimination” is represented by statutory regulations that are linked to the fact of being a minor . Children and young people are thus not by regulations about on the legal capacity "discriminated against".

However, there are efforts in Germany to grant children and young people the right to vote (on the grounds that the argument that the political education of minors is consistently inadequate, whereas the political education of adults is not) is not valid.

On the "V. Latin American meeting and the 1st Mini World Summit of Working Children ”in Huampani ( Peru ) 1997, the delegates demanded:“ We claim the right to work for every person regardless of their age, respecting all human rights, with special consideration of the conditions as children and young people and in compliance with all individual and collective labor rights in all areas of work ”, including the abolition of the rigid regulations for the protection of children and young people from child labor . It deals with the unjustified disadvantage of children and adolescents ( adultism or generational order ) in education and especially in modern childhood sociology .

Discrimination in employment

Difficult employment conditions

The argument that a young person is “too young” for a task is usually not mentioned in the first place in applications from adults. Nevertheless, there are statistical correlations that make it appear legitimate to speak of “youth discrimination” on the labor market. In many countries there is a high level of youth unemployment and it is often difficult for young people to find a regular job (“ generation internship ”).

Seniority regulations and experience times

Young people are also discriminated if they earn less than older work colleagues simply because of their age. That was decided by the Federal Labor Court and the European Court of Justice. In contrast , unequal remuneration based on the actual length of the service activity , i.e. on the basis of "experience" (according to which, for example, a 21-year-old young professional earns no less than a 31-year-old young professional) does not count as a form of age discrimination. In the opinion of the Federal Labor Court and the German Federal Government, the higher remuneration is justified by the greater professional experience of the employee and at the same time it should reward the employee's loyalty to the company. The ECJ states that professional experience is fundamentally a legitimate goal of remuneration policy. This could justify unequal treatment. The objection that a civil servant only receives more money at a certain point in time because he has become older (a possible consequence of the application of the principle of "experience") is countered by the consideration of the performance aspect in Section 27 (5) of the latest version of the Federal Salary Act (BBesG): "If it is determined that the services of the civil servant or soldier do not meet the requirements associated with the office, he remains in his previous level of the basic salary."

Calculation of employment times

In a judgment (LAG Berlin-Brandenburg, judgment of July 24, 2007 - 7 Sa 561/07), the state labor court Berlin-Brandenburg declared the provision of § 622 BGB (2) sentence 2 inapplicable, according to which when calculating the length of employment Times before the employee's 25th birthday are not taken into account. This regulation discriminates against young people. This view was essentially confirmed by the European Court of Justice .

Protection against dismissal and social plans

In general, the statutory (according to § 1 of the Dismissal Protection Act ) given preference to older employees in terms of terminations and social plans is suspected of violating European law. However, the Federal Labor Court considers a discussion of the question of the economic situation in which a person to be released is legally permissible. It corresponds to a general (legitimate) socio-political interest that social plans can differentiate according to the economic disadvantages that threaten employees who lose their jobs as a result of a change of company. On the basis of this approach, z. B. Claims of employees entitled to a pension from the provisions of the social plan are reduced. The consideration of the pension near the criterion is that it is not generally goes with social plans a favor older workers as an involuntary "retirement" employable older workers from full this can be perceived as a form of age discrimination.

Vacation entitlement

On March 20, 2012, the Federal Labor Court declared the provision of § 26 TVöD (collective agreement for the public service) to be inadmissible, according to which public employees under 30 years of age 26 working days, those between 30 and 40 years of age 29 working days and those over 40 years of age 30 working days Are entitled to vacation leave. The tariff graduation of the holidays does not pursue the legitimate goal of taking account of the increased need for relaxation of older people. An increased need for recreation on the part of employees from the age of 30 or 40 can hardly be justified. Employees under 40 years of age are also entitled to 30 days of vacation per year. However, since a regulation in the Birkenstock company , according to which 58-year-olds receive two more vacation days per year than younger ones, is linked to the increased need for relaxation of older people who work hard physically in production, this preference is legally permissible. The Federal Labor Court confirmed this view on October 21, 2014.

Eviction from the public

The presence of young people in certain places is often perceived as annoying. By means of a special sound system, people with the ability to perceive very high-pitched tones typical of young people can be driven away from installation sites, since they and only they find the high-frequency tones emitted by the system extremely unpleasant. In Austria, the National Council called for such systems to be banned at the beginning of 2008.

Discrimination in Politics

If young people oppose the fact that they should be used to pay higher taxes to finance the social security system, then this can also be seen as a fight against a form of “youth discrimination”, which consists in the fact that the majority , which is growing steadily for demographic reasons older people assert their interests in politics, disregarding the "minority rights" of younger people. The fact that younger people are underrepresented among politicians can also be assessed as a form of age discrimination (effectiveness of “old boys' networks” in parties). Former Federal President Roman Herzog even warned of a "pensioner democracy". However, empirical analyzes cannot confirm that older people are indifferent to the well-being of the next generation.

A concrete example of discrimination against younger people in politics in Austria is the stipulation that the right to stand as a candidate for election to the Federal President is only granted from the age of 35.

Finally, the complex of “discrimination against younger people” also includes public debt , as young people have to raise money to pay for services from which they do not always benefit. Those obliged to repay them do not have an advantage from borrowing, especially if consumer spending and not investments are being financed with public loans and if they have not yet been living at the time of this expenditure, i.e. could not benefit from them personally.

Discrimination through language

Young people are linguistically discriminated mainly by the fact that terms like “child”, “boy” or “girl” are applied to inappropriate age cohorts. In addition, younger people of age are often simply used, although the politeness form "you" would be appropriate. According to German law, 14-year-olds are no longer regarded as "children" but as "adolescents". Adults are neither "children" nor "boys" or “girls.” One problem is the fact that the term “children” is also used in the sense of “sons and daughters.” In this respect, people remain “children” of their parents for life. The terms “child”, “girl” or “Young” often correlate with a corresponding treatment of adolescents and young adults that is not very appreciative and taken seriously by speakers of the older generations.

Discrimination against members of the middle generation

Typical of the discrimination against adults of the age groups whose relatives are generally considered to be “employable” is the fact that they are accused of being both “too young” and “too old”.

A typical example of this are people whose health is so severely impaired well before the statutory retirement age that they can only theoretically find work on the primary labor market . Often they are worn out prematurely from years of hard physical work. The "Bundesverband der Rentenberater" (Federal Association of Pension Advisors) sums up the misery: "The chronically ill [sic!] People over 50 have almost no chance of a job, but: if you can theoretically do any work six hours a day, you will not get a pension due to illness. Employability only plays a role in less than six hours. "

Arbitrarily set age limits in connection with massive benefits for those who have reached them are also perceived as a form of discrimination against “not yet senior citizens” . In a Swedish amusement park, for example, a 59-year-old grandmother who accompanies her grandchildren has to pay 275 Swedish kronor in the main season, while the entrance fee for a 60-year-old grandfather is only 100 Swedish kroner, although working Swedes on average only have to pay 63, 8 years of retirement (for the legal assessment see price differentiation # legal admissibility of price differentiation and price differentiation # example: entry into leisure facilities ). In general, a problem with the general preferential treatment of senior citizens based on their age is that wealthy senior citizens also benefit from it, which can be assessed as a perversion of the welfare state idea. In 2001 Elisabeth Niejahr criticized : “It was only slowly that the realization took hold that the equation 'old equals poor' is no longer appropriate. Nevertheless, the most varied of 'senior discounts' at public institutions still benefit the 90-year-old billionaire in extreme cases. For the foreseeable future, the social gap within the generations will remain greater than that between the generations. ”The welfare state must concentrate on the poor.

The "war of the generations"

Psychology describes the current and future relationship between the generations as “designed for mutual harmony” - because today's boys know that they themselves are constantly aging and one day they will be counted in the senior cohort and that they will then also be dependent on solidarity . Conversely, many older people think of their own youth in view of the behavioral forms of the current boys that were initially criticized. In addition, senior citizens, at least when they have children themselves, generally want to make positive contributions to the next generation or the grandchildren (an ideal generative behavior, so to speak) and are therefore prepared to a large extent to contribute to their welfare, be it through one's own performance or through the withdrawal of one's own claims ("Beschenung", cf. Paul Baltes , cit. after).

Nevertheless, in the media, v. a. also with a view to childless old people (see above), there is repeated talk of worsening generational conflicts and gerontophobia . Often the conflicts described have the character of a distribution struggle. The wage replacement benefit pension, which is based on lifelong contributions to a legally regulated insurance system, is presented as an unjustified use of special rights of old age. The glut of pensioners , it is criticized, threatens the standard of living of the younger population, and warnings are given of generational conflicts, even a possible "generational war", if one or the other benefits of the insurance system are not waived (e.g. in 2003 by the then Junge Union Chairman Philipp Missfelder).

Legal evaluation

German law

As part of the discussion on the concrete implementation of human rights , the Federal Republic of Germany was criticized in 2006 by the German Institute for Human Rights in two different contexts for age-discriminatory conditions:

However, the Basic Law of Germany does not recognize an express prohibition of discrimination because of age. An application of the Senior Citizens' Union on the CDU - party conference in 2011 to include the phrase in the Constitution: "No person shall be discriminated against because of his age." Was withdrawn by the applicants. However, in the general principle of equality in Article 3, Paragraph 1, the equality of all people before the law is established as a fundamental right .

For all cases of unequal treatment, the stipulation of the Federal Constitutional Court applies : “The general principle of equality dictates […] that essentially the same thing is treated equally, essentially unequal things are treated differently. The unequal treatment (or the equal treatment) must be based on an objective reason, it must not be arbitrary ( prohibition of arbitrariness ). ” For example, because of their limited ability to deal responsibly with civil liberties, young children are not allowed to enjoy them to the same extent as adults. Corresponding legal regulations are not considered to be “discrimination” as they are not arbitrary.

In addition, the question of the extent to which a prohibition of discrimination is applicable to relationships between private individuals is disputed (see the problem of the third-party effect of fundamental rights). In many cases, the principle of freedom of contract must be observed . If z. B. Marketing analyzes have shown that in certain (age) groups the willingness to buy a certain product or to use a certain service is not great enough from the point of view of the respective provider, these groups can use targeted discounts are recruited as customers without this measure having to be assessed as a prohibited benefit. A “price differentiation through screening” - the buyers who are intended for the different prices are selected by the company; they are identified according to a criterion (screening); whoever does not meet the criterion for the low price has to pay the higher price - is in principle not prohibited. So z. For example, the regulation according to which people only have a right to the reduced “Bahncard 50” of the Bahn AG from their 60th birthday does not constitute an inadmissible benefit for older people, but a “normal marketing measure”.

European Law

A ban on age discrimination is contained in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union .

In addition, in line with the implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights , Directive 2000/78 / EC (Equal Treatment Framework Directive) requires the member states to implement the prohibition of age discrimination by adapting national laws by December 2, 2006 at the latest For this purpose, the General Equal Treatment Act came into force on August 18, 2006 . Disadvantages based on age are therefore expressly no longer permitted within the scope of this decree.

However, Article 6 of Directive 2000/78 / EC expressly allows certain appropriate forms of unequal treatment on the basis of age.

According to a ruling by the ECJ in 2016, an age limit of 35 years for hiring police officers is compatible with EU law.

United States Law

In the United States, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (Pub. L. 90-202) prohibits age discrimination.

Empirical studies on the extent of age discrimination

In spring 2008, citizens of all member states of the European Union were asked for their opinion on the subject of “discrimination”. 34 percent of Europeans said that age discrimination was "fairly widespread" in their country, and 8 percent said it was "very widespread". (Germany: both answers together 34 percent; Austria: both answers together 35 percent).

57 percent of Europeans said that age discrimination was less widespread in their country in 2008 than in 2003 (Germany: 57 percent; Austria: 59 percent).

Respondents were asked to indicate how comfortable they would be if a person younger than 30 or over 75 were to hold the highest political office in their country. The scale ranged from 1 to 10. The European average was 6.4 for the relatively young and 5.4 for the relatively old incumbent. Germans feel the least comfortable of all Europeans when they think of a very young incumbent (average: 4.8).

The proportion of respondents who stated that they themselves had been the victim of discrimination in 2007 is not as high for any type of discrimination as in the case of discrimination on the basis of age (6 percent).

See also

literature

  • Frank Bayreuther: Age limits, age group formation and the exclusion of retired employees from social plans - consequences of the judgments of the ECJ in the case of Rosenbladt, Andersen, Gregoriev and Kleist. In: NJW . 1/2011, p. 19.
  • Kai Brauer: Ageism. Fact or fiction? In: Kai Brauer, Wolfgang Clemens (Ed.): Too old? Ageism and Age Discrimination in Labor Markets . VS-Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-17046-6 , pp. 21-60.
  • Sharon R. Curtin: Nobody ever died of old age. German: Nobody dies of old age. Trikont-Verlag, Munich 1976.
  • Antje Fenske: The prohibition of age discrimination in US labor law. Duncker & Humblot, 1998, ISBN 3-428-09253-8 . (Münster contributions to law; MBR 118)
  • Oliver Hahn: Effects of the European regulations on age discrimination in German labor law. With comparative legal information on US law. NOMOS Verlagsgesellschaft, 2006, ISBN 3-8329-1826-4 .
  • Martine Lagacé: L'âgisme: comprendre et changer le regard social sur le vieillissement. Presses Universite Laval, Quebec 2010, ISBN 978-2-7637-8781-7 .
  • Astrid Nourney: Too old? Declined! Reports from Germany about getting older. Viola Falkenberg Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-937822-53-4 .
  • Frank Schirrmacher : The Methuselah plot. The Power of Aging 2004–2050. Karl Blessing-Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-89667-225-8 .
  • Felipe Temming: Age Discrimination in Working Life . A legal methodological analysis. Verlag CH Beck, 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57678-2 .
  • Klaus Rothermund, Anne-Kathrin Mayer: Age discrimination - manifestations, explanations and intervention approaches . Kohlhammer. Stuttgart 2009. ISBN 978-3-17-020492-8

Web links

Wiktionary: Age discrimination  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BAG prohibits age-discriminatory job advertisements . Blog.beck.de. August 19, 2009. Retrieved September 25, 2010.
  2. ↑ Benjamin Moser: Age Discrimination: Little Researched and Yet Everyday (PDF; 185 kB) September 17, 2008. Archived from the original on December 19, 2010. Retrieved on September 25, 2010.
  3. ↑ " by The term 'ageism' was originally coined in 1968 the psychiatrist Robert Butler, who has since emerged as the most influential and prolific opponent of prejudice and age discrimination against the elderly. ”From: Thomas R. Cole, Sally Gadow: What Does It Mean to Grow Old? - Reflections from the Humanities. P. 118.
  4. ^ Robert N. Butler: Age-ism: Another form of bigotry . In: The Gerontologist . tape 9 , no. 4 , December 10, 1969, p. 243–246 , doi : 10.1093 / geront / 9.4_Part_1.243 (English). See also: K. Brauer: Ageism. Fact or fiction? In: Kai Brauer / Wolfgang Clemens (eds.): Too old? Ageism and age discrimination on labor markets VS-Verlag 2010, p. 24
  5. ↑ Old people really have what it takes. In: taz . In the article, Gertrud M. Backes, Wolfgang Clemens and Francois Höpflinger show that most of the clichés about old people are wrong.
  6. ↑ War of the Generations? In: Der Spiegel . No. 16 , 2008, p. 20 ( online ).
  7. ↑ Undine Kramer: Linguistic aspects of age discrimination: linguistic discrimination of age - age and age in dictionaries, collocations and idioms (PDF; 56 kB) Archived from the original on December 3, 2011. Accessed on July 17, 2020.
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