GENPROM Series on Gender in Life Cycle A Guide on Employment of Older Women Workers in Estonia Gender Promotion Programme International Labour Office Geneva Foreword The Employment of Older Women Workers in Estonia is a guide for organizing workshops for training and awareness raising on the recruiting, hiring, training and managing of older women workers. The conception of the guide arose out of analytical work undertaken by GENPROM, which earlier published a monograph entitled Realizing decent work for older women workers. The research undertaken and practical project activities in Estonia highlighted the double discrimination faced by older women workers in terms of age and gender. This guide, therefore, is to respond to the need to combat such double discrimination. It addresses government policy makers, employers and workers’ organizations, as well as NGOs and community- based organizations working in the areas of promotion of equal rights and employment for older workers, in particular women. The guide was developed in the context of Estonia, but it can also be adapted to other countries facing similar problems. The guide aims at raising awareness of the issues of ageing and the specific discriminatory situations that older workers, particularly women face. To combat such discrimination, the guide draws attention to various tested methods used by different types of organizations, such as governmental bodies, employers and community and non-governmental organizations. The guide is also available in Estonian. Ms. Susan Roche together with her consultancy team, developed and wrote the guide, with funding provided by the Government of the Netherlands. Ms. Naoko Otobe, Senior Employment and Gender Specialist (GENPROM) provided technical supervision for the development of the guide, and facilitated its validation with the ILO constituents in Estonia, with the support of Ms. Riina Kütt, ILO National Project Coordinator of a Finnish funded project - “More and Better Jobs for Women in Estonia”. Ms. Otobe was also responsible for finalizing it for publication. Lin Lean Lim Manager Gender Promotion Programme February 2004 iii Contents Page Foreword ...................................................................................................................................iii 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1 2. Background on gender and ageing dimensions of the labour market in Estonia ................... 3 2.1. Background facts............................................................................................................. 3 2.2. Background definition of terms....................................................................................... 6 2.3 Background context.........................................................................................................7 3. Facts-on-ageing in Estonia Quiz (Q & A)............................................................................ 11 3.1 Introduction to the quiz .................................................................................................. 11 3.2 Q & A quiz training activity - instructions..................................................................... 11 3.3 Facts-on-Ageing Quiz Questions ................................................................................... 14 a. Q & A on the mental and physical processes of ageing……………………………...14 b. The phenomenon of population ageing in Estonia...................................................... 15 c. Q & A on global and European Union ageing issues of relevance to Estonia............. 16 4. Employment Schemes.......................................................................................................... 19 4.1 Introduction to the schemes............................................................................................ 19 4.2 Schemes training activity - instructions ......................................................................... 20 4.3 Employment schemes: Summaries................................................................................. 23 5. Essential Readings................................................................................................................ 29 APPENDIX A - Facts-on-Ageing Quiz ................................................................................... 31 APPENDIX B – Tip Sheets ..................................................................................................... 49 a. Q & A on the mental and physical processes of ageing................................................... 51 b. The phenomenon of population ageing in Estonia........................................................... 61 c. Q & A on global and European Union ageing issues of relevance to Estonia ………… 71 Annex C - Employment Schemes ............................................................................................ 87 1. EMPLOYMENT SCHEME: Schemes for use by private organizations........................ 91 2. EMPLOYMENT SCHEME: Job Fair............................................................................. 94 3. EMPLOYMENT SCHEME: Public service announcements (PSAs)............................. 96 4. EMPLOYMENT SCHEME: Decreasing gender discriminatory job announcements..... 99 5. EMPLOYMENT SCHEME: Owning non-profit company........................................... 101 5.a Non-profit company owned by older unemployed people....................................... 101 5.b Alternative self-employment Schemes: ................................................................... 100 6. EMPLOYMENT SCHEME: Getting started in self-employment................................ 104 B. Schemes for use by businesses, companies, and employers............................................. 115 7. ELOYMENT SCHEME: Replicating the original business success experiences with older workers...................................................................................................................... 115 8. EMPLOYMENT SCHEME: Projects with Industry .................................................... 118 9. EMPLOYMENT SCHEME: Cross-generational management inventory.................... 121 10. EMPLOYMENT SCHEME: Recruiting women returnees ........................................ 126 v 11. EMPLOYMENT SCHEME: Training older female staff through experienced-based learning............................................................................................................................... 128 12. EMPLOYMENT SCHEME: Boosting the confidence and image of ageing women workers............................................................................................................................... 130 13. EMPLOYMENT SCHEME: European Code of Good Practice for ageing in employment........................................................................................................................ 132 C. Schemes for use by government agencies ........................................................................ 135 14. EMPLOYMENT SCHME: Training of older workers................................................ 135 14.a EMPLOYMENT SCHEME: Reintegration through vocational training............ 135 14.b ALTERNATIVE SCHEME: Training of older workers...................................... 136 15. EMPLOYMENT SCHEME: Subsidized community service employment................ 138 16. EMPLOYMENT SCHEME: Age discrimination registration.................................... 141 17. EMPLOYMENT SCHEME: Age-aware human resource management .................... 143 Bibliography........................................................................................................................... 149 Useful websites: ..................................................................................................................... 153 vi 1. Introduction The Employment of Older Women Workers in Estonia is a guide for organizing a workshop and training on recruiting, hiring, training, and managing older women employees, which is published under the Series on Gender and Life Cycle of the Gender Promotion Programme (GENPROM) of the ILO. It is designed to respond to realities in Estonia where gender and old age discrimination are important issues. It has been recognized that there are: ¾ Disadvantages experienced by older women in the Estonia labour market; and ¾ Benefits to the Estonian economy of employing older women. It is recognized that these disadvantages and benefits occur within contexts of gender discrimination against women and of age discrimination against both women and men. These contexts are highlighted in the background section of the guide, which can be used as pre-workshop reading or discussed during a workshop. It is assumed that typical participants in training activities based on the Employment of Older Women Workers in Estonia guide are already aware of, or have participated in training focused on general gender equality or employment issues. The guide’s training activities refer to gender and age contexts as appropriate, but focus on the particular situation of older women workers, rather than on the total range of issues concerning gender, age and employment. The guide is designed for use by trainers, seminar leaders, and educators in group- learning settings. It is assumed that trainees learn best by a combination of seeing, hearing, and doing and this underlies the guide’s format, which is adaptable to a wide