Roland Favre, a 63-year-old Swiss citizen, was fired from the company where he had worked for 40 years, just one year from retirement. Favre started as a telephone agent and became a logistics manager, remaining with the same organization for four decades, attending training courses and taking on new responsibilities. The worker had a permanent contract and was affected by a restructuring that eliminated approximately 200 jobs in Europe, including his position in the structures in Germany, Austria, and Slovenia.
After the dismissal, Favre initially received no offer of early retirement or additional compensation. Only after stating that he was considering hiring a lawyer did he manage to negotiate a severance package corresponding to six months' salary. The worker expressed outrage at how he was treated: "I feel like I've been thrown away like a bag of garbage," he stated.
Since then, he has sent more than 150 applications and contacted recruitment agencies, without securing a new permanent position. In an interview, a human resources manager told him that the available vacancies "only attracted young people" and that the company could not hire people over 55 due to internal policy. Faced with the difficulty of finding employment, Favre began considering early retirement, although his financial advisor warned him he would lose a lot of money with that option.
The article also notes that, in Portugal, the normal age for accessing the old-age pension is set at 66 years and 9 months in 2026. There are specific schemes for very long careers and for involuntary long-term unemployment, but losing one's job near retirement age does not, by itself, entitle a person to immediately receive a pension without cuts.
