Anti-discrimination policies have not stopped workers over 45 being
pushed out of jobs.

Laura Nolan reports

When the online job board for mature aged workers olderworkers.com.au sent a call out to its members asking people who had experienced age discrimination in the workplace to send through their stories, in just one hour more than 300 mature workers in Brisbane alone replied in unanimous frustration with tales of downsizing, insensitive comments, lengthy periods of unemployment and retrenchment.Even the site’s director, 64-year-old Shane Higgins, had himself been subject to discrimination which prompted him to create the olderworkers.com.au website more than three years ago.

A report released by the Financial Services Council in January found that three out of 10 mature-aged workers had experienced age related discrimination. Of these, 24 per cent were sacked or made redundant before others, 19 per cent were met with inflexibility regarding health needs and 13 per cent experienced some form of verbal discrimination. It also found that 35 per cent of workers earning $40,000 to $80,000 a year were subject to age discrimination on the job. Unemployed mature-age job seekers are also finding it increasingly difficult to obtain new
work.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics Job Search Experience survey found that the number one reason job hunters over the age of 45 thought they were unable to find work was that they were considered too old by employers. In recent years more policies have been introduced in an attempt to combat the issue. In 2004 the federal government introduced the Age Discrimination Act, making it illegal for employers to discriminate against an employee or a potential employee on the grounds of age. To encourage mature workers to stay in their positions longer, the federal overnment also announced in 2009 that, from 2017, the qualifying age for the Age Pension would increase from 65 to 65.5 years, and that it would continue to rise by six months every two years until it reached 67 years by 2023. But still the issue of age discrimination continues to be a serious and widespread problem and the increasing number of unemployed mature-aged workers is costing the Australian economy $10.9billion a year.

According to National Seniors Australia CEO Michael O’Neill, there is a common opinion amongst employers that training mature-aged workers for a role is not a good investment and that they’d be better off spending their money on training younger people. “I don’t think employers are any different in a lot of ways to the rest of the community; it generally has an attitude about older people and that comes through in terms of employment,” O’Neill says.

Susan Ryan, Age Discrimination Commissioner for the Australian Human Rights Commission, says the main problems for older workers are often incorrect assumptions and labels placed on them. Generalisations include that older workers will be inflexible and won’t adjust to new ways of doing things, the cost of training older workers will be higher than hiring a younger employee, older workers will get sick more often and therefore cost more in workers compensation premiums and that older workers will be out of touch with new technologies. However, Ryan is adamant that if employers looked past these stereotypes they could benefit from their mature employees. “With a little effort and a little bit of reorganisation in regards to training or maybe some more flexible hours they’ve got a pool of talented workers right there who know the business.”

Ryan says older workers who feel they are being discriminated against should not stay silent, but raise the issue with their human resources department. “If you’re in there do everything you can to stay there,” she says. Employees should be willing to undertake retraining if needed, be open to chasing different positions within the business, to be flexible in their roles and have a positive attitude. “If you start thinking ‘oh perhaps I am too old’, then you’re not going to present very well. You have to be persistent.”

Source: BMag

4519 total views, 1 today