The “un-seniored” citizen

“What is the value of discount to a senior citizen without means to buy?”

When a senior citizen files a complaint against a hotel to insist he is entitled to the 20% discount by law, you can be sure the complaint is made to fight for a principle rather than financial gain. The relatively recent DTI opinion says that any discount arising from a privilege card bought by the user is one arising from contract. The senior citizen discount (SCD) given by law applies on that marked down amount and does not result to double discount. Useful victory and precedent. The senior citizen in this case appears to have fought for his rights and for others.

Elsewhere in the country, senior citizens are fighting an even more important struggle: a struggle for livelihood. What is the value of SCD to a senior citizen without the means to purchase?

We would not be raising this question if all retired senior citizens are similarly situated. Some undergo a lifestyle downgrade after retirement. And still some, without sufficient support from family, seek employment without success because of being overage.

According to a senior citizen, a slogan captures a collective sentiment: “You retire, you die”.

Indeed, the value of the SCD privilege pales in comparison to what could be earned by a senior citizen given an employment opportunity.

If by law, companies were compelled to grant SCDs, can the law compel corporations in general to employ capable senior citizens, even after retirement age?

When the law compelled companies to grant SCDs, the Supreme Court needed to resolve the issue of whether the government can pass on the burden to private enterprise or if the government should foot the bill. It became an issue of whether it is an exercise of police power or eminent domain. In an eminent domain exercise, government takes property but pays compensation. In an exercise of “police power”, the government can take private property—for the general welfare.

The Supreme Court said that compelling private enterprises to grant 20% SCD is an exercise of police power. In fact, it only seeks to regulate or minimize profit of the private sector on transactions with senior citizens. The insinuation is, if a private enterprise can prove that the discount is not only diminishing its profits but even resulting to a loss, they can recover that loss from government since it is a government program or function.

In the expanded senior citizen’s act, employment of senior citizens are encouraged, and private enterprises who hire senior citizens are given incentives by way of additional deductions (15% of the salaries paid to senior citizens) so they pay less income tax. In other words, if you employ senior citizens, government shoulders part of the cost. This impliedly recognizes that there are real additional costs in employing senior citizens because they may not be as productive as the young bloods. And the government is happy to subsidize. Not an exercise of police power at all as private enterprise is not mandated, and if they do hire, they are subsidized (or paid somewhat).

The Philippine Constitution mandates equal opportunity for all. But the expanded senior citizens law stops short of mandating private enterprises to hire able senior citizens. Partly because there are retirement laws and those who retired got their share of retirement benefits. Partly because retired senior citizens generally enjoy some pension. Partly because choosing the work force that would help the business survive and become profitable is a legitimate management prerogative.

In the law, the Department of Labor and Employment is only required to help match resources with needs of the industry, and that includes able senior citizens as resource. But this is one agency. Private corporations are in the tens of thousands. And a good governance policy of diversity and inclusion can give able senior citizens extended productive years. To be fair, the nature of the industry of call centers allows them to hire able senior citizens as the latter can sit and carry good conversation, and they are also loyal unlike the fresh hires. A renowned mall chain laudably treated the hiring of senior citizens as a corporate social responsibility program, and for limited hours and selected activities, seniors are made productive and worthy.

There is only so much that a government with scarce resources can do to take care of senior citizens even as their population continues to rise every year. A vibrant inclusive employment program in private enterprise will ease the pain, even prolong lives. With or without legislation, with or without expression of misery from the senior citizen, this issue will have to test the Filipino culture of sense of family and care for the elderly, beyond our own.