The last thing veteran police officer and security strategist David Parkinson expected was to hear he was not qualified for a job.

The 59-year-old former superintendent stepped down at the age of 55 after a 33-year career that included time at the forefront of anti- terrorism strategies inAustralia.

And yet, when boredom with retired life pushed him to re-enter the workforce, he found it much harder to get a job than he expected.

“The key words were energetic, they didn’t actually say ‘young’ but said things like they were looking for people to take the organisation forward over the years,” he said.

Mr Parkinson believes he may have come up against one of the great unspoken issues of our time – age discrimination that prioritises younger workers over more seasoned, better qualified people.

A study released last week found men earning a median wage were more likely to face age discrimination. But WA Equal Opportunity Commissioner Yvonne Henderson said prejudice could also be found at the recruitment stage.

“You can see it in some of the ads – they don’t advertise it overtly but use terms like ‘energetic’ and ‘forward-looking’, or say people need to ‘fit in with the team’,” she said. “If you look around the office and most people are under 30, you know what it means when you are told you don’t fit in with the team.”

Last financial year, 5.5 per cent of complaints to the commission were about age discrimination, and two-thirds of those were from men.

WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive James Pearson predicted almost half a million jobs would be created in WA over the next 10 years.

As Australia’s workforce aged, more and more people were looking to work beyond retirement age and companies and government needed to plan ahead to ensure they could retain and, if necessary retrain, these employees, Mr Pearson said.

UnionsWA secretary Simone McGurk said given the skills shortage WA faced, discrimination against older workers was “dumb”.

Source:TheWest.com.au

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