Questões de Inglês

Companies in the rich world are confronted with a rapidly ageing workforce. Nearly one in three American workers will be over 50 by 2012, and America is a young country compared with Japan and Germany. China is also ageing rapidly, thanks to its one-child policy. This means that companies will have to learn how to manage older workers better. Most companies are remarkably ill-prepared. There was a fl icker of interest in the problem a few years ago but it was snuffed out by the recession. The management literature on older workers is a mere molehill compared with the mountain devoted to recruiting and retaining the young. Companies are still stuck with an antiquated model for dealing with ageing, which assumes that people should get pay rises and promotions on the basis of age. They have dealt with the burdens of this model by periodically "downsizing" older workers or encouraging them to take early retirement. This has created a dual labour marketfor older workers, of cosseted insiders on the one hand and unemployed or retired outsiders on the other. But this model cannot last. The number of young people, particularly those with valuable science and engineering skills, is shrinking. And governments are raising retirement ages and making it more diffi cult for companies to shed older workers, in a desperate attempt to cope with their underfunded pension systems. Feb 4th 2010 | From The Economist print edition [adapted] According to the text, businesses

Minister calls for wider fl exible working rights British government ministers are considering giving all employees the right to ask for fl exible working hours "from the beginning" of a new job as part of plans to encourage a fundamental shift in working habits. The Work and Pensions Secretary, Yvette Cooper, says her offi ce is working with employers and organisations such as

the federation of small businesses to draw up new ways of supporting men as well as women and non-parents as well as parents working more fl exible hours. The current rules are limited to parents of children under 16 and carers, and Cooper wants to extend them. "You want people to offer fl exible working from the beginning and we need to look again at how the legislation can support different ways of doing that," she said. "There will be some areas where it's not possible to fi t round particular school hours or particular things where the nature of the businessmakes it hard - but what you need is the cultural change for everybody to think differently." Cooper's proposals come as the government announced that fathers will be given the right to six months' paternity leave. There will be a legal right to take the mother's place at home for the last three months of a nine-month maternity break; they would receive £123 a week in statutory pay. Fathers would then be entitled to take a further three months' unpaid leave. The move was criticised by some business leaders. (From: The Guardian, Friday 29 January 2010 -slightly adapted) The Work and Pensions Secretary

The International Labour Organization seeks to

Companies in the rich world are confronted with a rapidly ageing workforce. Nearly one in three American workers will be over 50 by 2012, and America is a young country compared with Japan and Germany. China is also ageing rapidly, thanks to its one-child policy. This means that companies will have to learn how to manage older workers better. Most companies are remarkably ill-prepared. There was a fl icker of interest in the problem a few years ago but it was snuffed out by the recession. The management literature on older workers is a mere molehill compared with the mountain devoted to recruiting and retaining the young. Companies are still stuck with an antiquated model for dealing with ageing, which assumes that people should get pay rises and promotions on the basis of age. They have dealt with the burdens of this model by periodically

"downsizing" older workers or encouraging them to take early retirement. This has created a dual labour marketfor older workers, of cosseted insiders on the one hand and unemployed or retired outsiders on the other. But this model cannot last. The number of young people, particularly those with valuable science and engineering skills, is shrinking. And governments are raising retirement ages and making it more diffi cult for companies to shed older workers, in a desperate attempt to cope with their underfunded pension systems. Feb 4th 2010 | From The Economist print edition [adapted] In paragraph 2, the author claims that the recent economic recession has

Minister calls for wider fl exible working rights British government ministers are considering giving all employees the right to ask for fl exible working hours "from the beginning" of a new job as part of plans to encourage a fundamental shift in working habits. The Work and Pensions Secretary, Yvette Cooper, says her offi ce is working with employers and organisations such as the federation of small businesses to draw up new ways of supporting men as well as women and non-parents as well as parents working more fl exible hours. The current rules are limited to parents of children under 16 and carers, and Cooper wants to extend them. "You want people to offer fl exible working from the beginning and we need to look again at how the legislation can support different ways of doing that," she said. "There will be some areas where it's not possible to fi t round particular school hours or particular things where the nature of the businessmakes it hard - but what you need is the cultural change for everybody to think differently." Cooper's proposals come as the government announced that fathers will be given the right to six months' paternity leave. There will be a legal right to take the mother's place at home for the last three months of a nine-month maternity break; they would receive £123 a week in statutory pay. Fathers would then be entitled to take a further three months' unpaid leave. The move was criticised by some business leaders. (From: The Guardian, Friday 29 January 2010 -slightly adapted) Ms Cooper hopes her new proposals will give more fl exible working hours

Companies in the rich world are confronted with a rapidly ageing workforce. Nearly one in three American workers will be over 50 by 2012, and America is a young country compared with Japan and Germany. China is also ageing rapidly, thanks to its one-child policy. This means that companies will have to learn how to manage older workers better. Most companies are remarkably ill-prepared. There was a fl icker of interest in the problem a few years ago but it was snuffed out by the recession. The management literature on older workers is a mere molehill compared with the mountain devoted to recruiting and retaining the young. Companies are still stuck with an antiquated model for dealing with ageing, which assumes that people should get pay rises and promotions on the basis of age. They have dealt with the burdens of this model by periodically "downsizing" older workers or encouraging them to take early retirement. This has created a dual labour marketfor older workers, of cosseted insiders on the one hand and unemployed or retired outsiders on the other. But this model cannot last. The number of young people, particularly those with valuable science and engineering skills, is shrinking. And governments are raising retirement ages and making it more diffi cult for companies to shed older workers, in a desperate attempt to cope with their underfunded pension systems. Feb 4th 2010 | From The Economist print edition [adapted] The text suggests that the governments of industrialized countries are

The phrase "gives the ILO an edge" [paragraph 4 line 4] means

Minister calls for wider fl exible working rights British government ministers are considering giving all employees the right to ask for fl exible working hours "from the beginning" of a new job as part of plans to encourage a fundamental shift in working habits. The Work and Pensions Secretary, Yvette Cooper, says her offi ce is working with employers and organisations such as the federation of small businesses to draw up new ways of supporting men as well as women and non-parents as well as parents working more fl exible hours. The current rules are limited to parents of children under 16 and carers, and Cooper wants to extend them. "You want people to offer fl exible working from the beginning and we need to look again at how the legislation can support

different ways of doing that," she said. "There will be some areas where it's not possible to fi t round particular school hours or particular things where the nature of the businessmakes it hard - but what you need is the cultural change for everybody to think differently." Cooper's proposals come as the government announced that fathers will be given the right to six months' paternity leave. There will be a legal right to take the mother's place at home for the last three months of a nine-month maternity break; they would receive £123 a week in statutory pay. Fathers would then be entitled to take a further three months' unpaid leave. The move was criticised by some business leaders. (From: The Guardian, Friday 29 January 2010 -slightly adapted) According to the text, current British laws on working timetables are designed mainly for

Minister calls for wider fl exible working rights British government ministers are considering giving all employees the right to ask for fl exible working hours "from the beginning" of a new job as part of plans to encourage a fundamental shift in working habits. The Work and Pensions Secretary, Yvette Cooper, says her offi ce is working with employers and organisations such as the federation of small businesses to draw up new ways of supporting men as well as women and non-parents as well as parents working more fl exible hours. The current rules are limited to parents of children under 16 and carers, and Cooper wants to extend them. "You want people to offer fl exible working from the beginning and we need to look again at how the legislation can support different ways of doing that," she said. "There will be some areas where it's not possible to fi t round particular school hours or particular things where the nature of the businessmakes it hard - but what you need is the cultural change for everybody to think differently." Cooper's proposals come as the government announced that fathers will be given the right to six months' paternity leave. There will be a legal right to take the mother's place at home for the last three months of a nine-month maternity break; they would receive £123 a week in statutory pay. Fathers would then be entitled to take a further three months' unpaid leave. The move was criticised by some business leaders.

(From: The Guardian, Friday 29 January 2010 -slightly adapted) With regard to paternity leave, the government has given men the right to