Mandatory retirement

It is a hot topic going around Saskatchewan today. The logic is that in response to a shortage of workers we should end mandatory retirement. A better response would to make madatory retirement at 55 rather than at the current 65 or eliminating it altogether. We need to increase our productivity not have it lowered. I'll explain. Mandatory retirement is the domain of unionized employment. In the real world (private business) mandatory retirement only exists for pension funds and to let go of unproductive workers without cause. Not only are we already penalized with unproductive union work shops, letting them work another five or ten years will also be expensive. More contributions to lucrative pension funds and adding one or more tiers to pay schedules will be a burden to business owners and, in the case of government unions, taxpayers.

The reality is that many workers that retire at 65 or earlier end up taking a job in the private sector. The ones that do not are probably not fit to hire.

One of the concerns is that young workers do not have the same work ethic of the previous generation. For the most part this is true. But, there are also many workers who have been in the same job for the past forty years that are just putting in time until they can start clooecting their pension.