What helps against a shortage of skilled workers?

Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil (SPD) almost regularly triggers allergic reactions from companies and business representatives with his views on this.

According to his analysis, it is not due to political regulations such as the "pension from 63" that companies are losing too many experienced, older specialists - but rather to their personnel policy: many employers are still unwilling to employ older people on attractive terms .

Britta Beeger

Editor in business and responsible for "The Lounge".

  • Follow I follow

Dietrich Creutzburg

Business correspondent in Berlin.

  • Follow I follow

The chairwoman of the CDU/CSU SME Union, Gitta Connemann, called this a "blame that can hardly be surpassed in terms of audacity" on employers.

"This insinuation by Hubertus Heil knocks the bottom out," said Connemann of the FAZ. "It's not the companies that need a change in mentality, but the Minister of Labor." make you unattractive in old age".

"We can't afford it economically"

Heil reaffirmed his view on Tuesday evening: companies should hire more older people.

"The whole mentality that people over 60 are thrown away, we can no longer afford it economically," he said on ZDF.

Shortly before Christmas he had already gotten involved – and thus opposed calls for a higher standard retirement age on the one hand, and on the other hand against doubts about the deduction-free “pension from 63” for long-term insured persons introduced in 2014 by his predecessor Andrea Nahles (SPD).

Even then, employers' president Rainer Dulger had accused the minister of using "fog candles" to distract attention from political failures in terms of skilled workers.

Heil's analysis is also met with incomprehension in mechanical engineering, one of the largest branches of industry with 1.2 million employees.

Thilo Brodtmann, General Manager of the industry association VDMA, calls the "pension from 63" a "blatant political mistake, the consequences of which mechanical engineering will have to crack in the foreseeable future".

Since the industry offers its staff above-average stable jobs, a particularly large number of specialists there even meet the criteria for early retirement.

According to pension researcher Axel Börsch-Supan, a total of 260,000 employees now retire prematurely every year thanks to “pension from age 63”.

And a disproportionately large number of these new pensioners are fit and highly qualified.

Bertram Brossardt, Managing Director of the Bavarian Business Association, also called for better framework conditions from politicians to keep older people in work longer.

"The pension at 67 must be implemented consistently," he told the FAZ. "The so-called pension at 63 must finally expire and we must specifically reduce incentives for early retirement." Brossardt objected to allegations that employers had reservations about older employees.

With their experience and qualifications, they are “a pillar of the entire operation” in most companies.

According to Brossardt, “there can be no talk of “old iron”.