The reluctance of Australian employers to hire older workers is costing the country about $10 billion each year, according to Australia’s age discrimination commissioner.

Susan Ryan says bias against workers over 50 is endemic and she fears it is much worse than previously thought.

She is using an address to the National Press this lunchtime to announce a new study into the prevalence of age discrimination in Australian workplaces.

“I expect we’ll find a picture that will be quite frightening,” Ms Ryan told ABC Radio’s The World Today.

“I think we will find that there is far more negative behaviour towards older workers than people understand – until it happens to them.”

The interim report, by Roy Morgan research, is expected to be finalised by the end of the year, and Ms Ryan expects the full report to be public by March next year.

But before it has even begun she suggests people should get a career check-up to map out at least the next decade of their working life as they approach 50.

“I think we need a national approach which will involve people in a systematic check-up on their career prospects while they’re still in employment, regardless of what sort of job they work in,” she said.

“[They] should be saying, ‘well, can I do this job for the next 20 years? Will I be able to? Do I want to? Have I got the physical strength to? And if I need to change what is available to me? How do I find another job?'”

Ms Ryan would like to see TAFE colleges play a central role, with support from the federal and state governments.

She said TAFEs are well placed to help as they “have good relationships with local employers” and understand which industries are growing and which are shrinking.

Time for businesses to recognise older Australians’ value

Businesses also need to undergo a “sea change” to see the value in employing older Australians, according to Ms Ryan.

“We get a lot of formal complaints at the [Human Rights] Commission, and they take the form of people being nagged into taking redundancies, or people being told they’re no longer suitable for their task, and being laid off,” she said.

“People being told they can’t undertake training that would be necessary for promotion or even to maintain their position because their employer thinks they’re too old or they won’t get their money’s worth investing in their training.”

In the federal budget the Government announced businesses would be eligible for up to $10,000 if they employed a job seeker over the age of 50 and kept them in employment.

While other wage subsidy programs have not had a big take-up rate, Ms Ryan said she hoped this one would be successful.

But she warned there was more to be done.

“Employers have to say to themselves, I want the best person for the job, not a person that I’m judging by the number of birthdays he or she has had,” she said.

The Commissioner has also questioned the need for an influx of foreign workers on 457 or similar working visas, when so many older Australians are still willing to work.

“I agree if we do have serious skills shortages, and we do have overseas workers who can come in, that’s a sensible thing to do,” she said.

“But it’s very hard to believe, when you look at the numbers of unemployed people in their 50s and 60s, the numbers of people who are willing to train, who are willing to move for a job.”

“You have to ask yourself, are employers looking at our local talent pool of mature workers before they decide they need to import labour? I don’t think the answer is yes in every case.”

She says research previously commissioned for the Australian Human Rights Commission found a 3 per cent increase in workforce participation amongst workers aged 55 and over could contribute $33 billion to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).

“It’s big, big money,” she said.

“When you look at numbers like that it’s hard to understand why more effort isn’t being made to ensure those people can work longer.”

Source: ABC.NET.AU

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