Age discrimination - exposing the hidden barrier for mature age workers

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PDFAge discrimination - exposing the hidden barrier for mature age workers
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08 October 2010The purpose of this paper is to look at and raise awareness of the issues of ageism and unlawful age discrimination against mature age workers within the workplace. It is a form of discrimination that appears to sit quietly – it can go unnoticed and seems accepted. This paper aims to expose it.

In a number of Commission consultations and in research, unlawful age discrimination emerged as a serious disincentive to mature age workers continuing in paid work. The Australian Bureau of Statistics defines anyone over the age of 45 years as a ‘mature age’ worker. Yet this is no ‘magic’ number. People of any age can be told they are ‘too old’ for a job. The majority of the age discrimination complaints received by the Australian Human Rights Commission in 2008-09 related to employment. Most of these complaints were made by individuals over the age of 45 years.

Authors: Elizabeth Broderick, Priya SaratChandran, Karen O’Connell and Elena Rosenman.

Publication typeReport
Publisher TypeGovernment or Gov agency
CoverageAustralia
Permanent URLhttp://apo.org.au/node/22855
Views2978

Comments

Janette Cairney
October 12, 2010, 4:22 am
If government was serious about age discrimination it would stop the practise of asking for date of birth on employment applications it is totally unneccessary to know date of birth, it is more important to ask for proof of qualifications. There are only two ages unqualified and qualified, also remove these psudeo employment agencies where a kid just out of school holds the power of enable you to have an interview or to be filed in the bottom draw

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