Commissioner slams age discrimination by employers

The Commissioner for Age Discrimination, Elizabeth Broderick, has spoken out in support of claims in the National Seniors Australia Experience Works report that maintain mature age works are being discriminated against.

“This report reinforces the position of the Australian Human Rights Commission – that unlawful age discrimination is a critical problem faced by mature age workers in Australia today,” Broderick said in a statement.

“Not only do we need to raise awareness of the types of age discrimination that are unlawful, but we need to strengthen the laws that protect against it.”

Broderick said while many mature age people choose to retire, often personal circumstances dictate mature age workers continuing in a job, but that they face significant challenges in doing so.

“As we know, the trend is now to extend our working lives past 65 – it is, therefore, vital that the Australian Government and employers take the problem of age discrimination very seriously.”

Broderick said the report shows age discrimination is a significant barrier for Australians, and urged the Government to embark on an awareness-raising campaign to address misconceptions of mature age workers and review the laws that protect them.

The Experience Works report shows that labour force participation for people aged between 55 and 64 in Australia is lower than in Scandinavia, Britain, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Ireland, New Zealand and the US.

“This is an issue that needs urgent attention, not only because age discrimination and misconceptions about mature age workers are occurring in our workplaces right now, but because this is an issue that is very likely to confront anyone who stays in the workforce past 45 years of age – and let’s face it, that is a significant number of us,” she said.