Ageism? We have no problem with older employees

Last week UBS published a report suggesting how older employees might be re-integrated back into work to help plug with the current lack of specialist employees. This, against the background that, as a rule, it is not so easy for older people to get back into work.
 
Not that this is a problem at Siemens (Switzerland) where chief executive officer, Siegfried Gerlach, 63, (photograph), said he could not understand why any discussion should be taking place at all about people over the age of 50 in the workforce. “Clearly there is prejudice against older employees, but this is not the case here at Siemens. Older employees can perform just as good as younger ones. I have seen no slackening off in employees over the age of 50,” he said in this interview with a journalist of the Sonntag Zeitung national Sunday newspaper. “And look at me. I am 63 and still up to my job as CEO.”
 
Gerlach went on to say that the company did not tolerate age discrimination, adding how he occasionally looked into the statistics relating to applicants to see whether older employees were sufficiently considered. “It is important pressure comes from the top,” he said.
 
He also said that, should performance not be up to scratch, companies should have the courage to decrease the salary paid accordingly, as he emphasised that, at Siemens, performance-oriented pay was put into practice, regardless of age. “The days when age and wage were expected to run parallel with each other are over,” he said. “When there are bosses who no longer want to do the job, then they should be given another role without their having to lose face.”