Proposed retirement age increase sparks new discussion

According to HENRY FALAIYE, experts have voiced contrasting opinions on the Nigeria Labour Congress’ request to raise the country’s retirement age and years of service requirements for civil servants.

During the celebration of 2023 Workers’ Day on May 1, Nigeria Labour Congress President Joe Ajaero demanded that the retirement age and length of service requirements for the entire public sector, including the civil service, be raised from 60 to 65 years of age and 35 to 40 years of service, respectively.

According to Ajaero, it is now essential to review the retirement age and years of service across the board in the Public Service. This extension was already made in other areas of the Public Service, and labor believes it should continue.

Only a few other establishments, such as the core civil service, are now excluded, he claimed. Therefore, we are requesting that the retirement age and length of service be raised to 65 years of age and 40 years of service, whichever comes first, for the entire public service, including the civil service.

There have been conflicting views on the subject ever since the NLC president called for the extension of the nation’s retirement age and years of service.

Dr. Muda Yusuf, the chief executive officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, noted that many civil servants were calling for an increase in the retirement age because they were finding it difficult to start new businesses after they retired.

Most of them can’t run a business, he said. Therefore, even when they attempt to conduct business, the majority of them lose money, and many people con them by offering them a variety of absurd business ideas and venture proposals. Since it is difficult to start a business when you have spent your entire life in the civil service, many of them have lost their entitlements as a result of choosing the incorrect line of work.

He asserted that many retired civil servants have trouble fitting into other situations.

He claims that the NLC’s request for an increase in the retirement age and length of service makes some sense.

“At least, if the employees are healthy and fit, they can work for up to 65 years before retiring.

Read Also: Retirement: the implementation of the 65 year retirement age and 40 year of service begins Jan. 1

He argued, “After all, judges are permitted to serve for up to 70 years, and in the universities, they permit them to serve for up to 70 years.”

He argued that the demand of labor was supported by an existing precedent.

Some consultants work well into their eighties. Because of their years of experience, the older they are, the better, according to Yusuf.

According to him, employees should be permitted to work up to 65 years if they are in good health and are still productive.

“Nearly 90% of them are unable to conduct business. As long as they are productive, the longer they can stay, the better for them,” he said.

NLC demand should be taken into consideration on its own merits, according to senior HR expert and consultant Tolu Adedayo.

He claims that some businesses even lower the retirement age so that workers can leave the workforce earlier and start working for themselves.

He clarified that his former employer had a 55-year-old retirement age. “The rationale behind that is that people would still be nimble so that they could accomplish something on their own after leaving work.

He clarified, “What we do is provide them with post-retirement business ideas and training so that, even before they leave paid employment, they are already trained and equipped with everything they would need to survive.

He pointed out that given the standard of living and Nigeria’s economic situation, the NLC may be calling for an increase in the retirement age and the number of service years.

I believe that retiring early is the best course of action. In France, where the government was attempting to raise the retirement age, there was recently a national demonstration in the nation.

“The French government’s plan to raise the retirement age was to decrease the number of retirees. Therefore, in my opinion, the best way to move forward is to encourage entrepreneurship, teach Nigerians how to start their own businesses so they can generate more jobs, encourage them to retire early, and provide them with the resources and training they need to survive after retirement.

The African Centre for Supply Chain’s Director-General and President of the Association of Outsourcing Professionals, Dr. Obiora Madu, claimed in an interview with The PUNCH that the question of whether the retirement age and length of service should be reviewed was unimportant.

Productivity ought to be the main concern, according to Madu.

He claimed that raising the retirement age and the length of service would have a negative effect on output.

He continued by saying that the Nigeria Labour Congress should be concerned with the productivity of the civil servants and that they ought to demand a living wage and depart from the system when it was time.

He questioned, “Given that the unemployment rate is around 33%, where will those people find employment if they raise the retirement age and length of service for civil servants?

For Victor Oyesina, an expert in human resources and talent acquisition, it was one thing to publicly demand that the retirement age be raised to 65 and that the length of service in the public sector be increased to 40 years; it was quite another to actually follow through with the declaration or proposal by designing the systems and processes that would enable the justification for that extension to stand.

He claims that the government speaks more than it does.

“Are they prepared to create the systems that would bring about those outcomes?

Because the current administration is coming to an end, labor must wait until the next administration to complete this.

Because no one knew who would be appointed to the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Oyesina continued, the timing was improper.

“It’s wise to raise this so the incoming administration is aware. Of course, the National Assembly will still have to pass various bills.

“It’s great that the NLC was spreading awareness. Starting with awareness will allow us to monitor how implementation proceeds, he said.

Dr. Dare Ajiboye, a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria and a former general secretary of the Bible Society of Nigeria, pointed out that before raising the retirement age and the number of years of service, the country’s life expectancy rate needed to be taken into account.

What is the country’s average life expectancy at this time? According to him, Nigeria’s life expectancy is between 50 and 55 years, and the country is pushing for a 40-year service requirement and a 65-year pension age.

He asserts that one should consider the demand’s justification and practicality.

It implies that if one has a 55-year life expectancy, they begin to deteriorate between the ages of 45 and 50.

“What happens to people’s productivity when they reach 65 years old. Would they still produce as anticipated?” he questioned.

He claimed that because their jobs were less demanding than those in private businesses, where employees struggle to meet goals, civil servants were pushing for an increase in the retirement age.

Ajiboye argued that it would be difficult for someone to be very productive at the age of 65.

It is not just Nigeria that is currently debating retirement age and length of service. While the country’s labor union is pushing for an increase in the retirement age, their French counterparts opposed their government’s plans to raise the retirement age from the current 62 years to 65 years. Hundreds of French workers protested against the extension in April because they were so adamantly opposed to it.

The UK government recently announced that it was thinking about increasing the retirement age from 60 years to 68 years by 2035. If adopted, the proposals would apply to current employees who are under the age of 54.

The Prime Minister and Chancellor were warned by some of the nation’s lawmakers that raising the retirement age to 68 would be “playing with fire.”

According to reports, millions of Britons may be able to extend their careers thanks to government plans to raise the retirement age to 68 by 2035.

The proposal, which would apply to people born in the 1970s and later, was reportedly expected to be announced in the March Budget.

Backbench MPs have warned both Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt that they are ‘playing with fire’ in the lead-up to the next general election.

The Treasury reportedly estimated it to be worth millions to the UK’s struggling economy, according to the proposal. In response to the rising cost of living, hundreds of thousands of workers have already decided to reduce their pension contributions.

Different tactics clearly work for different people, as evidenced by the varied responses to proposals for a review of the retirement age.