BTC CEO Francis Mussenden's move to bring workers out of retirement in an effort to get phone lines back up after the hurricane has been hailed as a step in the right direction by a seniors' advocacy group.

"When I heard Mr. Mussenden say that, I thought immediately, `That's a great idea'," said Age Concern director Claudette Fleming.

Concerned about the impact of a greater life expectancy combined with a decrease in children being born, Ms Fleming recently made a speech to the Bermuda Public Services Union (BPSU) describing why the Island cannot afford for seniors to retire at 65. She was unsure about the strength of any movement to increase the retirement age, however.

Under former Premier Jennifer Smith there was mention of changing the age for Government workers to retire to 70, she said. She also pointed out that there was no law requiring people retire at 65 - it was just a policy. Should Government make it policy for their workers to retire at 70, that would set a standard for the private sector.

In her speech to the BPSU, Ms Fleming observed that the combination of greater life expectancy and less children being born led to fewer workers supporting more elderly people.

"According to the 2000 Census, in Bermuda, the burden of supporting the dependent segments of our community, i.e. children and the elderly, has increased to 43 dependents for every 100 working persons," she said.

In Bermuda ramifications of this could include burdens on social services (with more people claiming benefits than those contributing), less workers to actually care for the elderly, and a weaker economy with more people on a presumably fixed income.

"Therefore, given that we are living healthier longer, today's retiree will find him/herself retiring with many years of potential working life remaining," she said.

"As such, it is more than likely that continuing to work past 65 years of age will not only become more and more likely, it will also become more and more necessary. Younger employees need to know today about the challenges that await them once they reach retirement age. They need to know that chances are they will have longer working lives than their parents did.

"They need to know that the cost of living will be much higher for them as a retired person than as a working person. They need to know that traditional retirement years will, in all likelihood, encompass one third of their entire lives."

As such, she said, Bermuda needed to start preparing. "Contrary to popular belief, ageing in the workplace need not be a scary thing, particularly if individuals and society are adequately prepared for it.

"In the meantime, however, in order to prepare in Bermuda, there remains work to be done."