By
the year 2000 nearly half the workforce in Europe are over 40 and yet throughout
Europe there is a deep ambivalence (犹豫)-if not outright suspicion-towards the
capabilities of older workers. Those over the age of 40
generally take longer to find new employment, but European governments have done
little to protect their employment rights. Only Germany, with incentives to
business to encourage the employment of older people, and France, with the
introduction of legislation making it illegal to use age barriers in
recruitment-or to make employees redundant because of their age done anything
substantive to combat age discrimination. Yet even in these two
countries, there has been no noticeable improvement in the lot of the older
workers; indeed, in France, job advertisements flout (轻视，反对) the law openly by
asking for applicants of a certain age. So, should France and Germany be
tightening up their laws and should the rest of Europe follow suit?
Bill Robbins, a careers consultant said, "Legislation against age
discrimination has been in existence for well over ten year in the U.S. and
Canada, but has had no effect. Employers will always be able to find some
reasons for turning down an older applicant without appearing to break the
law." Ironically, it was governments which played a leading
role in hardening business culture against older workers in the first place. In
the late 1970s, many European countries were extremely concerned about the
levels of youth unemployment, and France, Germany and Belgium even initiated
incentive schemes for businesses to encourage older employees to take early
retirement provided that younger trainees were taken on in their place. As more
and more employees took early retirement, often willingly, a new, youth-oriented
culture permeated business throughout most of Europe-even in those countries
that had taken no active measures to promote it. Demographic
(人口统计学) trends mean that governments are now anxious to slow down the policy of
early retirement as they realize that they simply do not have the funds to meet
their pension promises. But reversing business attitudes is no easy matter.
Dianah Worman a policy adviser said, "There is a widely held belief that older
people are less adaptable and trainable. This is just not true: research has
shown that differences in capability are as wide within age groups as they are
between them."
单选题
Which of the following words can best describe the European attitude to
older workers?