For many of Russia’s elderly, finding work has been a painful experience. Despite the excellent qualifications many received during the Soviet era, they now must battle the strong biases employers have toward hiring older applicants. However, as some experts point out, the prospects for those approaching their pensions may be improving.

Oleg Babarin, a 63-year-old sales specialist, says he has had to fight through many obstacles in his search for a better job, but few have been as difficult to overcome as his own age.

"Recruiters initially find my professional background quite attractive, but quickly step back when they recognize I’m over 50," he said. "I’m too often refused a job because of that."

It is a problem shared by many here. Despite the experience and highly skilled nature of Russia’s elderly, recruiters and job seekers say that ageism casts a dark shadow over the domestic job market.

"Now that I’ve reached the legal age of retirement, finding a job has become difficult," said Valery Shapovalov, 61, whose training is in engineering, but has since been forced into a variety of jobs unrelated to his expertise.

"The labor market for older people includes only unpopular vacancies, such as those of courier, expeditor, storekeeper, truck driver, hall-porter and so on," he said. "But I’ve got an education at university level and have specialized in several fields."

The problem, many say, comes from a troubling mix of bad law, hardened attitudes and the great uncertainty that marks Russia’s economy.

For instance, according to analysts of the Russian job market, one of the predominant biases the elderly must fight is their ability to integrate with a younger workforce. "This psychological conflict has its roots in the paternalistic attitude older persons often have toward others," said Galina Venzhega of the State Employment Center. "Reporting to a much younger manager can lead to difficulties for both individuals."

Another problem, elderly workers complain, is that they increasingly don’t fit into the corporate appearance or marketing strategies demanded by the New Economy: young, flexible and energetic.

"The policy of one bank I worked at was that old people are bad for the company image," said a 52-year-old employee who wished to remain anonymous. "If you want to work as a manager, you must be an energetic, young man with a nice appearance; you are the face of the bank and must always work with clients. At the age of 48, I started looking for another job because I knew that sooner or later I’d be fired."

But Yulya Troschy of Arthur Hunt Russia, an HR consulting firm, says that concerns over retaining or hiring older applicants can generally be justified. Older workers often have trouble learning new skills, do not work as fast and are less likely to demonstrate loyalty to a new firm, especially if the management is younger, she said.

Other analysts, though, see many optimistic prospects for elderly job applicants and employees — even if, at times, only in terms of potential.

"Generally, an employer should prefer an older person, expecting him to stay with an organization for a long time, while younger applicants might still be willing to look around for better career opportunities," said Lyudmila Daniltseva of the State Employment Center.

"Organizations that value knowledge, especially scientific knowledge, tend to have older employees," Venzhega said. "In Russia, the manufacturing industry is able to retain a workforce of employees who are predominately over 40."

Nevertheless, she added that often, "age discrimination falls into the recruitment process, and prejudice in the interviewing process is also common. When a company is downsizing, older employees are usually the first to be asked to leave and take early retirement. When a company is faced with the choice of promoting two employees, one who is 55 and another who is 35, the company is likely to choose the younger employee.

"In fact, age discrimination is not just evident in the workplace, but also found in restrictions on the age of candidates to be allowed free higher education."

For these reasons, advocates for reform argue that ageism is a problem requiring strict legal measures to combat.

Russia’s Constitution states that, "Everyone shall have the right to make free use of his or her abilities for work," and that remuneration for work should be, "without any discrimination whatsoever." According to the Russian Labor Code, there are no prohibitions against a retired person wanting to continue work.

The Code also forbids any direct or indirect preferences given to employees based on gender, race, language and a number of other basic criteria. Age is not listed, said Evgeny Reyzman, an associate at Baker & McKenzie Moscow, but is generally understood to be included under the spirit of the law.

The main ambiguity comes from elsewhere, he said — in a part of the Code that does not consider preferences determined by the specific nature of a job as discriminative. "This is the most important loophole, as a number of statutes provide some age limitations on employment."

Moreover, Reyzman said, even though the Russian Constitutional Court has provided some very important clarifications related to this matter, the measures are hardly sufficient to ensure fair treatment of aged employees in the majority of industries.

"In such a situation, to cure the loophole the Constitutional Court will have to review all possible professions for which age limitations are established, to consider for which of them such limitations are reasonable," he said, adding that no new drafts of the Labor Code provide for more specific regulation in this area.

According to Reyzman, the most popular way of getting rid of an unwanted elderly employee is by intentionally loading up his work schedule. "However, even in such cases, an employee is not unprotected and may argue that his current work was intensified with the purpose of dismissing him. In most such cases, the courts would rule in favor of the employees given the general trend in employment practice to defend the less protected party.”

"If job applicants 60 and older didn’t have to face such obstacles, they would have many more opportunities to gain employment," Daniltseva said.