Posts Tagged “jobs for older workers”

7 Things I Learned About Friendship From Working In An Intergenerational Office

I am 65, and for the past four years, HuffPost’s office in Los Angeles has been my work home. I am the oldest breathing soul in the building, something that I’ve grown accustomed to. I happen to like my officemates a great deal — and believe that that affection is reciprocated. But without a doubt, being the oldest employee comes with some distinctions — and life lessons. Here are a few:

1. You don’t have to be in the same life stage in order to be friends with someone.
Right now, we are celebrating two recent engagements in my office. Marriage proposal stories are such fun to hear, especially if you are a boomer who came of marriage age at a time when getting down on one knee or asking the woman’s parents for permission would likely have revoked your commune membership. Since my own husband asked me centuries ago to marry him with something like “Wanna?” I appreciate the thoughtful care that went into Ashley and Meredith’s proposals.

I am also genuinely interested in hearing the details of the weddings-in-the-works. I find myself cautioning them to not lose sight of the marriage in planning for the wedding.

In my current life stage, I’m preparing for our oldest child to leave for college in a year. My officemates have a wealth of information about the college application process and the college experience itself since it wasn’t that long ago for many of them. When my daughter applies next year, she will have benefited from the collective wisdom of these fairly recent graduates.

Our milestone events may not be the same, but the enthusiasm we have for one another’s important occasions is real. They came to my son’s Bar Mitzvah ceremony and I almost made it to Anna’s first-house party.

2. I don’t have to go to karaoke night to be part of the group.
Every office has a culture. Ours has a hipster vibe, where fun is encouraged. We work hard and we play hard. We have game nights and cocktail-tasting events. We have drink carts on Thursdays, share free bagels on Fridays and have corporate days where we volunteer. I pick and choose my spots but am always included by all. I like that. It’s the way it should be — even if I don’t show up most of the time.

When you think about it, we’ve always compartmentalized our friends. I have Mom friends and friends from my single days. I have friends from within the world of journalism and friends who are neighbors. I also have movie friends and hiking friends and trying-new-restaurant friends. I think it’s fine for boomers to have millennial friends.

3. If I’m their mentor, they are my educators.
I’m maternal by nature, which means I like to share the experience of my years — mostly about life, but sometimes about work too. And of course old dogs can be taught new tricks. Which makes us perfect. I like to think that I push the bar up journalistically here in the office. With my colleagues’ help I’ve become one of those 65-year-olds who knows more about the Internet than all her same-age friends.

4. We share indignation.
Except for my insistence that real music died about 10 years after Woodstock, our views are largely aligned. One thing I love is their support whenever I go off on age discrimination. Think about it: Many millennials can’t get their foot in the corporate door and many boomers like me have no plans to go anywhere. That alone could trigger animosities among lessers.

But in our case, they share my indignation over the small stuff that makes me explode. For example, companies that recruit for “digital natives.” I love that expression — digital natives — except when I see it in a job posting. Digital native means someone who was born with a cellphone in his or her hand. It’s been showing up lately in job postings when the company wants to hire someone young and has been cautioned against by H&R offices worried about age discrimination suits. I’m not sure how long the term “digital native” will be around, but I do know that my young friends agree with me that older people have a place in the workforce — and that we in fact enrich the office.

5. I am a walking history book, and they are the future chapters.
As digital natives — well, they are — they often encourage me to talk about the good old days of print journalism. They were shocked when I told them how 35 years ago, a county judge in New Jersey booted me out of the courtroom where I was reporting on a trial because I was wearing a pant suit. Ladies, he told me, wore skirts to his court and to do otherwise was showing disrespect. The next day, every female reporter I knew came to court with me — all of us wearing pant suits.

My young colleagues were equally stunned when I explained how I was told that I couldn’t be promoted because to do so would take a paycheck out of the hands of a “family breadwinner,” and how more than once I was asked why I didn’t just get married and have kids.

From my colleagues, I have learned how the new dress-for-success look is often my jeans and boots. They are my go-to resource for all things current. I now know where to shop, eat, drink and vacation. Heck, I even got Netflix to be able to join in the conversation.

6. Cash v. Card.
This continues to be our big divide. What is it with millennials and their aversion to cash? They all use plastic all the time for everything, including buying a soda off the food truck. I carry cash. It comes in handy for handing over to a mugger, which is precisely why I suspect they don’t carry any.

7. Technology made our lives easier.
At the risk of sounding trite, there really is an app for everything. And I thank my young colleagues for sorting through the clutter and letting me know which ones will really make my life easier. I knew about Uber, but not UberEats — which delivers a fresh lunch to my office in under five minutes. (H/T Joe Satran, HuffPost Taste writer.) From Healthy Living writer Anna Almendrala I learned about Withings, an interactive app that tracks your exercise, food, steps, weight, etc. She also was the first one to show me MyFitnessPal. And I’m a total fan of Venmo, a peer-to-peer money transfer system.

Probably more to the heart of things, they taught me that technology isn’t the big scary beast that so many of my own-age peers feel the need to dismiss disparagingly

Source: Huffingtonpost.com

Federal budget 2015: Mean-spirited say older workers and migrant pensioners

National Seniors Australia chief executive Michael O'Neill says pensioners are bearing the brunt of the budget. — National Seniors Australia chief executive Michael O’Neill says pensioners are bearing the brunt of the budget. Alex Ellinghausen

by Sally Rose

Seniors groups have come out swinging against the 2015 federal budget arguing it unfairly targets older Australians, with measures that impact mature-aged workers and migrant pensioners among those in the firing line.

Consumer lobby group National Seniors criticised the budget for slashing $2.4 billion from pensions, cutting over $50 million from aged care, and tinkering with incentives designed to encourage employers to hire older workers.

“Older Australians are bearing the brunt of budget cuts, and they have every right to be disappointed,” National Seniors chief executive Michael O’Neill said.

Council of the Ageing (COTA) chief executive Ian Yates said older Australians will welcome confirmation that the government has dropped “unfair” changes to pension indexation and given them more choice and control in how they receive aged care at home, changes to employment incentives and cuts to dementia care would be less popular.

Mr Yates said he was particularly disappointed with the government’s changes to its flagship mature age employment scheme introduced last year.

Employers who hire an eligible worker aged over 55 years through the Restart Allowance scheme will now be rewarded with the full $10,000 subsidy after one year, rather than two.

CHURNING

“This could lead to some employers churning older employees on short contracts so employers benefit from the incentive but the workers become unemployed again. It is also disappointing that the incentives still only apply to older people who have been unemployed and on income support for six months. Earlier eligibility would make candidates more attractive to an employer,” Mr Yates said.

Advocates were also critical of a decision to combine the administration of the Restart Allowance scheme with other employment programs targeting younger workers.

“The budget claims a $120 million saving from this reorganisation but it is not clear where that saving will come from. We are worried it will mean a reduction in funding for Restart and argue that older workers need a dedicated program,” Mr O’Neill said.

Separately, a move to slash the amount of time per year retired migrants will be allowed to spend living outside Australia without having their aged pension rate cut has also drawn criticism for being unfair and potentially discriminatory.

OVERSEAS

As it stands, aged pension recipients who have lived in Australia for less than 35 years since the age of 16 can spend up to six months a year living overseas before losing part of their benefit. Under the new rules this threshold will be cut to just six weeks.

“It is a very mean-spirited approach that unfairly singles out Australians who were not born in this country,” Mr O’Neill said.

Aged pensioners who have lived in Australia for more than 35 years will retain the ability to live overseas for most of the year without losing their pension.

The new rules are forecast to save the budget $168.6 million per year from 2017.

“It seems like a very harsh cut for the people affected without a very clear rationale as to why it is being done,” Mr Yates said.

Source: AFR

Older worker pool can’t be wasted: Hockey

Joe Hockey says employers need to make their workplaces more flexible for older Australians. Photo: AAP.

Employers may need more help to change their attitudes about taking on older Australians, Treasurer Joe Hockey has told a public forum.

They may also need to make their workplaces more flexible so that older workers are more able to work.

“Whatever the case, we cannot afford to let this large talent pool go to waste,” Mr Hockey said in Canberra on Wednesday.

Mr Hockey’s intergenerational report released last month, highlighted that as Australians are living longer, they need to work longer.

If older workers do not stay in the workforce for longer, fewer people will be working and paying taxes to fund health, education and other things we take for granted today.

“If we don’t do something, we risk reducing our available workforce, impacting negatively on growth and prosperity, and our income will come under increasing pressure,” Mr Hockey said when the report was released.

The intergenerational report, a five-yearly review of the next 40 years, anticipates economic growth will slow slightly due to an ageing population.

Average annual growth is expected to be 2.8 per cent over the next four decades, compared with 3.1 per cent in the past 40 years.

There will be only three workers in the traditional age range (15-64 years) for every person aged over 65 in 2054/55, compared with 4.5 people now and 7.3 in 1974/75.

Mr Hockey has previously stated that increased productivity and workforce participation is needed to drive prosperity through economic growth.

“If we are to achieve these goals, we need to encourage those currently not in the workforce, especially older Australians and women, to enter, re-enter and stay in work, where they choose to do so,” he said.

Source: AAP

Employers overlook older workers

By Carmen Hall

Tuesday Apr 7, 2015

John Harper has been a plumber for 40 years and hopes to work up to or beyond retirement age

Employers are likely to overlook older job seekers, a new report reveals – but local recruitment agencies say although it is more difficult for those aged over 50 to find jobs they are harder workers.

A survey from the Auckland University of Technology and Equal Employment Opportunities Trust found there was a “tipping point,” typically at about 50-60 years of age, at which workers were seen as less attractive.

It also showed 45 per cent of organisations were facing a skills shortage, which was combated by people continuing to work past retirement age.

“You have to be open to the best person that comes through the door, whether they are male, female, old or young.”

However, negative stereotypes about older workers persisted among some employers, managers, young workers, clients and within society itself, despite it being unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of age in employment under the Human Rights Act 1993 and Employment Relations Act 2000, the survey found.

Human Resource Group company director Brett Looker said: “It is harder once you get over 50.

“It’s possibly a preconceived perception by the general public that candidates may not be as quick to pick up on business systems and processes if they are moving into a new role, in terms of the IT challenges. Another reason is they may not possibly fit with the existing team, which may be younger.”

However, he preferred to steer candidates through to clients in that age group because they often had a strong work ethic, and were reliable and honest.

“You don’t get the contrast of a Generation Y type group, which sometimes isn’t as strong, so there is lots of positives.”

There was a skills shortage in Tauranga in some areas, Mr Looker said, including engineering, housing, construction and senior management roles.

“I interviewed a guy recently who was a quantity surveyor in his late 60s but whether or not I have a role for him is difficult to know, for the very reasons we have talked about.”

1st Call Recruitment managing director Phill van Syp said he found older people “just get on with the job, they are more focused on what they need to do rather than – you know – what is in it for me?” “You would be an ignorant employer if you isolated your market,” Mr van Syp said.

“You have to be open to the best person that comes through the door, whether they are male, female, old or young.”

Tauranga and Western Bay of Plenty Grey Power president Christina Humphreys said older people were discriminated against when applying for jobs.

“You don’t get the contrast of a Generation Y type group, which sometimes isn’t as strong, so there is lots of positives.”

“We are having a problem. We know people are not getting the jobs because they are older.”

She knew of people who had applied for over 20 jobs in a month and were depressed after continually making the shortlist but missing out. “They have got the qualifications and they all get to the 11th hour, and we know it’s because they are older.”

Bay of Plenty/Coromandel Master Plumbers Association president Craig McCord said the average age of a plumber was 55 and he employed eight people aged over 50.

However, most people had put down their toolbelt by the time they reached retirement age.

“The cut and thrust is, it’s too physical.”

Tauranga Chamber of Commerce interim chief executive Toni Palmer said age was not what defined an employee but more how they worked within an environment and what they brought to the workplace.

Employers did not necessarily see people over 50 as less employable, as they would look at those employees for the skills they had, she said.

“And as skills are becoming more difficult to get, then the age of the employee becomes less relevant, at either end of the age scale.”

Employees now moved more frequently to build a career and gain knowledge, she said.

No downing of tools for plumber

Tauranga plumber John Harper has no intention of retiring any time soon.

The 59-year-old said he would definitely work to 65 or possibly longer as his job was keeping him active.

“I am enjoying what I am doing and I don’t think that reaching 65 would change that much.”

His job could be physically demanding but he was up for the challenge.

“We are always moving around; sometimes you’ll be climbing or crawling on your knees and on your back or digging so you are quite mobile.”

But that was good for working up a sweat and getting the heart rate up, he said.

Employment

New Zealand recorded the second highest employment rate of people aged 55-64 among OECD countries in 2012 and 2013 and third highest of people aged 65-69 in 2012.

As at June 2014, 22 per cent of workers in New Zealand were aged 55 or over.

Government predicts this will rise to 25 per cent by 2020, with many likely to remain working beyond 65.

The proportion of the labour force aged 65 or over (currently 5 per cent) is expected to increase to 13 per cent by 2036.

– NZ Work Research Institute

– Bay of Plenty Times

Concern about workplace cover for older workforce

Date: April 6, 2015

Anna Patty

Workplace injuries are set to rise as a result of the expected increase in the number of people working past the age of 65, raising concern about cuts to workers’ compensation schemes around the country and pressure on welfare services, lawyers warn.

The Australian Lawyers Alliance said the federal government’s intergenerational report predicted the proportion of workers older than 65 will grow from 12.9 per cent to 17.3 per cent by 2051. The former Labor government raised the retirement age from 65 to 67 by 2023 and federal Treasurer Joe Hockey has said Generation X Australians might have to keep working until they are 70.

ALA national president Andrew Stone said cuts in benefits to injured workers through state-based workers’ compensation schemes around the country, particularly in NSW, could have long-term consequences for a rapidly ageing workforce.

“If the government expects people to work longer, where does it expect that these people will receive support if they are injured?” Mr Stone said.

“An ageing worker is more likely to suffer a non-serious workplace injury and fall into a lower category of coverage, potentially receiving less support or even being denied workers’ compensation medical and income benefits.

“This is particularly the case in heavy industries, where it will be physically difficult for people to work longer, as well as in less physically demanding workplaces.”

The increased risk meant a long-term vision was needed to support injured workers, Mr Stone said.

The introduction of a no-fault National Injury Insurance Scheme meant state-based workers compensation schemes were being reviewed, he said.

“Eligibility criteria for the [National Disability Insurance Scheme] and [National Injury Insurance Scheme] will likely mean that people injured at work would be unable to access these schemes for support to a significant degree.

“If these people are also denied access to workers’ compensation, it will mean that their only means of support could be under the Disability Support Pension, Centrelink or Medicare. This has already been seen in NSW.

“It is important that governments resist such pressures to raise thresholds, reduce caps and remove lump-sum commutations as a short-term fix.”

The intergenerational report suggested the proportion of taxpayers was declining as part of the ageing population, he said. By 2055, the number of people aged between 15 to 64 would be only 2.7 times greater than the number aged 65, compared to 4.5 times greater today.

“The choices that state and territory governments make now about how they fund the NIIS could have resounding impacts when considering a long-term vision for how we care for older Australians in decades to come.

“If states take the easy option and simply raise damage thresholds now to pay for no-fault catastrophic insurance, the damage will be extensive.”

A spokeswoman for WorkCover said the system was designed to be fair and affordable and to assist injured workers to return to work. She said WorkCover was looking at the demographic trends and workplace impacts of an ageing workforce.

People injured after they reach retirement age are currently entitled to weekly payments for 12 months after an injury that leaves unable to work.

Seriously injured workers with more than 30 per cent whole person permanent impairment receive medical treatment rehabilitation and support benefits related to their injury for life.

“The workers’ compensation scheme’s chief purpose is to support injured workers to return to work by encouraging employers to make alternative duties or changes in duties to help their recovery in the workplace. This approach is more important for older workers, as their place of employment is often their key social and community outlet,” the spokeswoman said.

Source: SMH

Linfox stands down unfit, middle-aged workers without pay

Date: April 4, 2015

Nick Toscano

Older warehouse workers are being stood down without pay at Linfox sites across Melbourne, fanning fears the transport giant is forcing out permanent staff in favour of “churn-and-burn” casuals.

John Russell has been laid off by his employer Linfox on returning to work after a back injury with 37 years on the job. Photo: Simon Schluter

John Russell looked over the letter from his boss again, staggered by the news.

The forklift driver had taken time off work with a shoulder injury but his doctor had cleared him as fit to return. He assumed his job of 37 years would be safe. He was wrong.

The letter from transport giant Linfox said the 65-year-old was now stood down without pay after an assessment by company doctors. It said he was deemed unable to perform “inherent requirements” of the job, specifically, using a hand-held scanning device.

Older workers like Mr Russell are being stood down from Linfox warehouses across Melbourne, according to their union, which has accused the company of phasing out permanent staff in favour of “churn-and-burn” casuals from labour-hire companies.

Organisers say up to 100 older or unfit workers have been targeted at a single distribution centre in Truganina over the past 12 months, under a “blanket policy” to wipe out those unable perform every aspect of warehouse work.

The figure is not disputed by Linfox, which said the stand-downs were the result of productivity-boosting initiatives introduced last July at the distribution centre that Linfox operates for Coles.

Mr Russell spent most of his working life employed by Linfox, Australia’s largest private logistics company. But he is now in limbo – jobless without being officially terminated, and unable to claim the pension.

“I felt terrible, actually,” he said.

“Linfox has hundreds of sites around Melbourne and there must be jobs out there with lighter duties if that’s what they want … but they are replacing the older people with younger casuals [who] they can work as hard as possible. It shows a lack of loyalty and disrespect.”

National Union of Workers organiser Matt Toner said the company had instituted a blanket policy of targeting workers it considered “liabilities”.

“Within a warehouse there are different jobs done by people who are a bit older and have been with the company a long time, like fork-work, lane-marshalling and clerical,” he said.

“But new management now says that unless you are doing everything here, we don’t want you here.”

Mr Toner said workers planned to step up industrial pressure on Linfox management to stop older staff being “thrown on the scrap heap”.

A Linfox spokeswoman said the new processes at Truganina were communicated to company employees and were not in violation of workplace law.

“To date, the Fair Work Commission has not indicated that Linfox is in breach of the relevant provisions arising from the national enterprise agreement or with respect to specific general protections arising from the Fair Work Act,” she said.

The company had also engaged an workplace expert to draw up “reasonable expectancies” for orders to be completed and ready for distribution, she said.

Industrial tension between the union and Linfox appear to escalating after the company recently filed a submission to a sweeping review of the Australian industrial relations system. Linfox alleges shift workers were harassed by union recruiters at the site in 2013 and has made fresh calls for restrictions on organisers entering workplaces.

The union strongly denies the claims, and said it was disappointed by the company’s decision to air allegations dating back two years. Linfox’s submission includes extracts of 10 written complaints by workers employed that year and said existing right-of-entry laws lacked balance.

Source: Brisbane Times

Part-pension eligibility may be tightened in wake of outcry over cuts

Scott Morrison to ‘consider seriously’ the alternative proposal following complaints about the plan to cut pension increases laid out in the budget

The Abbott government is considering limiting wealthy retirees’ eligibility to the part-pension as an alternative to its controversial budget policy to cut the rate of pension increases, the social services minister, Scott Morrison, has said.

Morrison signalled the potential backdown after the government faced nearly a year of internal and external criticism for its decision to confine pension increases to the consumer price index from 2017.

Groups including the Australian Council of Social Service (Acoss) have repeatedly argued the original budget measure would erode the value of the pension relative to wages over time, and the government should instead consider tightening eligibility rules for the part-pension.

Morrison said he would “consider seriously” the Acoss proposal because the government was “wedded to the goal” of a sustainable and adequate pension system rather than any particular measure.

The chief executive of Acoss, Cassandra Goldie, said the plan to target the pension to those who most needed it would involve “reducing the current threshold that allows couples with as much as $1.1m in assets on top of the family home to qualify for a part-pension”.

Goldie spelled out her alternative proposals in a statement issued on Wednesday. Acoss proposed reducing the cut-out point for the part-pension for couples to $794,250 in assets besides the family home, saving the government an estimated $1.45bn in 2016-17.

Morrison signalled his openness to the plan. He said he had asked the sector and crossbench senators “if they have better proposals to make our pension sustainable”, and he would “keep on the table measures until there are new measures to put on the table”.

“What I am saying particularly in relation to the pension is that the proposal put forward by Acoss today is something we will consider seriously. I am interested in getting an outcome and a solution here that delivers a sustainable pension for all Australians, not just those today but those in the future,” Morrison said in Adelaide.

“Acoss, by putting this forward today, understands that that is something we have to address. We can’t just stick our head into the sand which is what the Labor party appear to be doing.”

Morrison said the government was aiming to “get to a point where we can be in agreement about the measures that will deliver a sustainable pension”.

“That is what I am wedded to,” he said. “The government is wedded to the goal and our goal is to have a sustainable and adequate pension into the future and it is clear that if you keep just going down the path that Labor is suggesting which is to stick your head in the sand and do nothing then you will run the pension off the edge of a cliff.”

The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, refused to say whether he would support the proposed changes to the pension asset test.

“I’m not going to give this government a blank cheque,” Shorten told the ABC on Thursday.

“What I would support is well thought out, detailed policies, which they haven’t put to us. The discussion in this morning’s newspapers is nothing more than Scott Morrison having a thought bubble.”

Shorten said there was still no concrete proposal on the table, but the government appeared to finally be admitting problems with its pre-existing policy to cut pension indexation.

“It is correct that Labor has opposed the government cutting the rate of pension indexation and today for the first time it appears that after nearly a year of Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey saying government policies were unfairly being targeted by Labor through a scare campaign, for the first time we see chinks in the armour of the government’s propaganda campaign where they have tried to pretend that somehow what they were doing was good for pensioners.”

At a later media conference, Shorten left the door open to supporting changes to part-pension eligibility, which would spare the government the need to seek crossbench support in the Senate

“Labor has always been up for making sure that we have the fairest possible system, but pensioners of Australia should not have to consider the Abbott government’s budget measures with a gun to their head which is cuts to $80 a week in pension indexation,” he said.

Labor’s families spokeswoman, Jenny Macklin, said the government “should put carefully considered proposals to the public and then we can all look at them in a proper way”.

The Greens senator Rachel Siewert said her party supported calls for “a broad review of retirement income instead of fragmentary changes to the pension.”

“This review should include looking as the assets test and changes to super concessions,” she said.

The pension indexation changes were announced in the government’s first budget, delivered in May last year, but faced a Senate obstacle.

Morrison has been signalling for some time that he was looking at the pension issue. He recently proposed reviewing the adequacy of the pension every three years in an attempt to win crossbench support for the indexation changes.

Morrison said community and seniors’ groups and the independent senator Nick Xenophon had offered constructive alternatives in what he described as a “coalition of ideas”.

He said the government would “work through these measures in careful detail and seek to cost them fully”.

Source: The Guardian

Employment service providers paid to place jobseekers in roles lasting only a month

Tony Abbott says shorter roles offer a ‘stepping stone into secure long-term jobs’ but Labor says it is simply the revival of a failed Howard-era policy and will increase jobseeker churn

Corangamite MP Sarah Henderson with Eric Abetz, Tony Abbott and the assistant employment minister Luke Hartsuyker launching jobactive on Tuesday. Photograph: Karen Sweeny/AAP

Employment service providers will be offered cash incentives to place jobseekers in short-term positions as well as longer term ones under changes announced by the federal government on Tuesday.

The new “jobactive” system will offer service providers a payment for filling four week-long vacancies, as well vacancies lasting 12 or 26 weeks.

“In the past we have only paid on 12 and 26-week outcomes,” the prime minister,Tony Abbott, told reporters in Geelong.

“We know there are a lot of short-term jobs available, particularly in regional Australia, there are jobs that are seasonal and these are often the start of someone’s renewed connection with the labour market. That is why an important innovation in this new jobactive system is the four-week outcome payment.”

Abbott said short-term work was “the best possible stepping stone into secure long-term jobs”.

“The best preparation for work is work,” the prime minister said.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) said the policy would “encourage service providers to churn vulnerable jobseekers through multiple short term job contracts in order to claim multiple payments”, ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said.

“The ACTU has consistently advocated for the government to introduce a 52 week payment to incentivise service providers to place jobseekers into long-term work. This would be a much better alternative to a four week payment.”

The initiative, which comes off the back of the Howard-era Job Network policy, has been panned by Labor.

“The government’s return to the failed Job Network model, with a new name, will not help unemployed Australians into work,” shadow employment minister Brendan O’Connor told Guardian Australia.

“We are not convinced the introduction of a new four week payment will do anything to support job seekers into decent work. Instead it will lead to increased jobseeker churn and job insecurity.”

O’Connor said that the Coalition must not take resources away from jobs training.

“Labor is deeply concerned that the new employment services model will in fact leave job seekers without the support they need,” he said.

Under the jobactive scheme, money for training will be provided only if jobseekers need it to secure a position that has already been advertised. Job agencies will have to risk their own money to provide individuals with training they think will be needed to gain employment more broadly.

David Thompson from the peak organisation representing non-profit employment services, Jobs Australia, welcomed the jobactive scheme, but warned that the training element “might be too restrictive”.

He said many long-term unemployed people needed training to reorient themselves to workplaces before applying for specific jobs, and that training could help jobseekers whose industries were suffering job losses.

“The labour market of today and the labour market of tomorrow are very different,” Thompson said.

The employment minister, Eric Abetz, said unemployed people who took on short-term contracts or undertook work for dole programs were healthier.

“All the data tells us that if you are gainfully employed, your mental, physical health, yourself esteem and social interaction are all enhanced and not only for you as an individual but everybody else in your household.

“That is why, for the long term unemployed, to be engaged in work for the dole, for example, is not only an important mechanism to say thank you to your community, but it is also of untold social good to the individual,” he said.

A total of 66 job agencies have been offered contracts to deliver on the jobactive scheme, from the 184 that put in tenders. Their contracts will last for five years rather than three, a move the government said will provide certainty for service providers.

The new scheme begins on July 1 and also includes targeted programs for Indigenous jobseekers based on the work undertaken by mining magnate Andrew Twiggy Forrest, who has conducted a review into Indigenous jobs and training.

“He has been a real apostle of getting away from this training for training’s sake notion and ensuring that people are being prepared, not for training but for work,” Abbott said of Forrest.

The government will implement job targets for Indigenous jobseekers for the first time under the new initiative. The targets will vary from region to region.

“The targets will ensure that employment service providers are finding jobs for Indigenous jobseekers at the same rate as for other job seekers in a region,” a spokesman for the Indigenous affairs minister, Nigel Scullion, told Guardian Australia.

“Providers will also be held accountable for their performance in meeting these targets through the star ratings system. A poor performance will affect an organisation’s star ratings and this will have an impact on whether they are given any future business from the government.”

Source: The Guardian

Juanita Phillips: Grey hair shouldn’t cost you your job

Date: March 30, 2015

Phillips as she appears on our television screens, with her hair dyed blonde. Photo: Damian Bennett

Here’s how I really look. Or at least how I would look, if I was brave enough. It’s how I’d look if I felt able to age naturally, without fear of risking my livelihood.

On air, my hair is the same colour it was 25 years ago, when I first started reading the news. The difference is that these days it takes two hours and several bottles of chemicals, once a month, to get me there.

The truth is, I’m a 51-year-old woman and I have grey hair. Not a glamorous silver streak. Completely grey. Grandma grey. “Have you ever thought about just going grey?” the hairdresser asked. “It’d save a lot of time.” An innocent question, but the very thought was terrifying.

Juanita Phillips, digitally altered (with her permission) to show her hair in its natural, grey state. Photo: Damian Bennett

I’ve been hiding my grey hair since my early 20s, when it first appeared. I remember feeling panicked. Perhaps it’s the equivalent of men going bald. Thick, glossy hair represents youth and vitality. Grey hair or no hair means one thing: old age.

When I started in TV, it was my dirty little secret which only the hairdressers knew. “Colour me younger!” I’d say as I sank into the make-up chair to get my roots done. By the time I was 40, they were telling me I was 60 per cent grey. After that, I stopped asking.

A few years ago, tired of the pretence, I decided to go silver at the front. Nobody seemed to notice. But after a few months, my hairdresser begged me to get rid of it. “It’s so ageing,” he said. “And I’m worried you might lose your job!”

It goes without saying that getting older holds no such perils for men on TV. Grey hair, bald patches, wrinkles, glasses. They can even get away with a paunch. If anything, ageing enhances a man’s gravitas. Brian Henderson was still reading the news at 71. The late Ian Ross was 68. The ABC’s own Ian Henderson is 61. But how many grey-haired women with glasses present prime-time nightly news in Australia?

Prime-time television news seems populated almost entirely by two groups: thin, gorgeous young women (nearly all blonde), and men of all shapes and ages. There’s a handful of older women – those in their 40s and 50s – but they don’t look their age and, with the notable exception of Lee Lin Chin, they don’t have grey hair. And women on Australian TV in their 60s and 70s? Apart from Caroline Jones on Australian Story, virtually non-existent. It’s like an entire generation has been vaporised.

Here’s what really happened to them: they hit menopause and they stopped looking like babes. It wasn’t that long ago that Mary Kostakidis was pushed aside for a younger man as SBS World News presenter, and it’s been less than a decade since some long-gone dinosaur coined the vile term “f…ability” in assessing the appeal of female presenters.

But on the positive side, things are changing. That blokey culture is way past its use-by date, and well on the way to being “boned”. In its place, you have TV executives like ABC news director Kate Torney, a strong advocate of gender equality in broadcasting.

There are more women aged over 50 in high-profile news roles than ever before. Lisa Wilkinson, Liz Hayes, Tracy Grimshaw, Sandra Sully, Kay McGrath, Helen Dalley, Geraldine Doogue and Ann Sanders are among the first generation of women to survive this long in TV. They’re strong, confident women who’ve had lifetime careers; not the kind of women who’ll obediently fade away when the boss decides he’d prefer someone younger and prettier.

The big test will be when this current crop moves into their 60s and 70s. That’s when it’ll get interesting because the real issue for TV women is not so much getting old. It’s looking old.

So back to the question of whether I’d go on air with grey hair. I’ve been hiding it for 30 years. That’s some 700 hours of my life baking my head in a poultice of chemicals. Oh for the sweet relief of not having to worry about it!

But I’m a 51-year-old woman in TV. I know the score. Grey’s fine with me, and I’d like to think the audience could cope with it. But the TV industry? I wouldn’t bet my career on it. Not just yet.

Source: Daily Life

Federal government to confirm plans to expand work for the dole to 49 year olds

MARCH 27, 2015

New program … The federal government will confirm its expanded work for the dole program next week. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

AUSTRALIANS who are under 50 and out of work will be forced to work for the dole from July.

The move comes as part of an overhaul of the job placement system designed to cut red tape and put an end to wasteful taxpayer subsidised training that doesn’t lead to work.

Currently, only jobseekers aged from 18 to 30 who live in 18 trial sites across Australia are required to undertake compulsory work for the dole.

From July, the scheme will be expanded nationally and take in all job seekers up to the age of 49.all job seekers up to the age of 49.

The new mutual obligation requirements will see Australians under 50 having to undertake work for the dole programs for 15 hours a week, for six months of every year they remain unemployed.

New system … The federal government is poised to announce the outcome of its tender process for the $5.1 billion job services network. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

Those under 30 will have to do 25 hours of work for the dole a week, and all job seekers will have to apply for 20 jobs a month – half of what the government initially proposed when it released the details of tender process this time last year and was forced into a back down.

TOUGH CHANGES: Jobseekers must look for work daily

HIT LIST: Abbott government reveals the first work for the dole regions to be targeted

Assistant Minister for Employment Luke Hartsuyker, who is expected to unveil the companies and organisations who won government contracts to place jobseekers in work next week, said the job placement system needed an overhaul because it was mired in red-tape.

“Employment providers had become tied up with endless paperwork — providers told me how they spent more than 50 per cent of their time filling in forms,” Mr Hartsuyker told News Corp.

“Job seekers complained of completing endless amounts of training but with no job opportunities; one job seeker told me he could have wallpapered a room with all the certificates he had.”

It is understood the new model will provide financial incentives for job service providers to place people in real jobs — not just send them to training courses, or process job application forms.

News Corp Australia understands job providers will receive outcome payments after placing unemployed people in work for 4, then 12, and then 26 weeks.

Job service providers will be offered 5 year contracts in a move designed to provide greater consistency for the employment services sector, and providers working in regional areas will receive additional payments to recognise the difficulties of placing job seekers in work outside the major cities.

Laws passed last year designed to crack down job seekers who miss compulsory interviews with their job placement provider, will also take effect from July, and will see welfare payments suspended and not back-paid for failing to attend regular meetings without a reasonable excuse.

In the last financial year alone, about 4.5 million compulsory appointments were missed by jobseekers.

Source: News Corp

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