It was at the end of August that SJ's board announced that they would replace Lingegård, 62, with Swedavia's CEO Jonas Abrahamsson, 58, in the spring. Bengtsson commented on the whole thing in a way that he himself describes as stupid and which "with good reason" could be interpreted as age discrimination.
"We need a CEO who can have a perspective of 5-7 years, and it's enough to look at Monica's birth certificate to realize that then a change of CEO will occur during this period," said Bengtsson to Dagens industri.
Want to clarify
In a letter to the Discrimination Ombudsman (DO), signed by both Bengtsson and Lingegård, they write that they want to "categorically clarify" that it was not a matter of age discrimination.
The incident, however, made him delve into the issue. In a debate article in Dagens industri, Bengtsson writes that the extent of the so-called ageism in working life, where older experienced people are chosen away or not even seen as interesting, was "new to me".
His experience of Swedish working life, including top positions, is well over four decades. He has, among other things, been CEO of Ica and Ica Group, been chairman of Svenskt Näringsliv and pension giant Alecta, and is chairman of, among other things, Systembolaget and Clas Ohlson.
"Best job pension country"
Bengtsson now proposes that the government should let a parliamentary inquiry go through what needs to be changed for Sweden to become the best "job pension country" in Europe. That is, a dream country for those who want to work longer and combine it with a pension.
The Discrimination Ombudsman (DO) received a number of reports after the incident following Bengtsson's statement, but no formal investigation has been initiated.
