Naming and shaming - getting rid of age prejudice

Like a cancer on productivity and dignity, age prejudice undermines Australian society.

One would think, considering how desperate organisations are to raise productivity and for governments to rake in tax dollars from older age cohorts, that there would be a revolution in the streets if older Australians couldn't get a job or were sacked because they were 50 or 60 or 70- but that's exactly what is happening.

Age prejudice is insidious. It scurries from the truth and dissembles in the shadows of HR departments and water cooler conferences across the nation. It costs us $10.8 billion a year.

Age prejudice hits both older and younger generations. If you're 21 and have just finished a university degree you may know the sting of getting knocked back for a job because you don't have any experience. But how can you get experience when you are 21 and can't get a job? That's age prejudice.

Age prejudice is not youth's revenge. Nor is it the historic tension between young people and their elders in the struggle for independence and power.

Age prejudice is like racial and sexual prejudice writ large. We can tell it by its symptoms: fear, intolerance, separation, segregation, discrimination, and hatred. The single underlying cause of race, age and sex prejudice is ignorance.

The mechanics of age prejudice

• Mature Aged Workers (MAWs) are screened out at the beginning of the recruitment process by recruiters on instructions of their clients.

• Young people sometimes discard older candidates regardless of their suitability for the position because they cannot identify with them.

• Job ads use code words aimed at people under 30, including buzzy, fast-paced, go-getter, high-flyer, can- do, switched-on, on the ball. Another device was to ask candidates for years of experience or the date of graduation.

• MAWs are passed over for promotion or denied training and career development because they are not deemed worth the investment of time and money.

• MAWs are often targeted during redundancies and branded as "dead wood".

• Older workers feel pressured to retire before the pension eligibility age of 67.

I like Candy – in small doses

Some time ago I went for a part time job at Oxfam as an Office Manager. I was in my late 40s then. My professional writing business was up and running but a couple of more days work a week would have been handy. I had previously done volunteer media work for Oxfam so I knew a bit about them.

As I entered the interview it was all smiles from the panel except for one young woman called Candy. 15 minutes in to the interview Candy said apropos of a reply I made, 'I think you might be a bit over qualified'.

It was true that I had a lot of experience leading staff, I had taught at university and I had worked in the media. I was just looking for a part time job, not to pilot the Space Shuttle. I was done 'like a dog's dinner'.

Candy was about 26 and her blog said she liked travelling. She was politically 'right on' – except for her prejudicial attitude and a lack of tact. Why should our date of birth have anything to do with our suitability for employment?

New Commissioner

The new Aged Commissioner Susan Ryan said in The Weekend Australian recently "The view seems to be if you're over 50, you can't do this; if you're over 60, you can't to that; and if you're over 70, you can't do anything."

Ms Ryan's new role also extends to ensuring young people are not discriminated against on the basis of age. She says young people also need to be made more aware of their workplace rights, but her first agenda item will be to help older people work longer if they choose to.

We also need to keep in mind that recent share market volatility going back to the GFC in 2008 has wiped up to 20 percent off some superannuation nest eggs. This loss, combined with the Federal Government's policy change of the staged increase in the age pension age to 67, means that many older workers will have to work longer.

Age discrimination was banned in a series of laws enacted in the other states and the two Territories between 1991 and 1999 and the Commonwealth Parliament legislated against Age Discrimination in 2004. Legislation banning compulsory retirement was also enacted during this period.

According to a 2010 National Seniors Report, called Age Discrimination in Employment, 'The Elephant in the Room', women are particularly vulnerable to age discrimination.

Middle-aged women attempting to enter the paid labour force after an absence due to family responsibilities are rejected on the grounds of lack of experience, whereas age was the real reason. Older women are rejected on the grounds of being over-qualified.

This double bind problem creates a subclass of highly vulnerable workers, subjected simultaneously to ageism and sexism.

Not quite like a Virgin

In 2005 eight experienced female flight attendants aged between 36 and 56 bought a complaint against Virgin Airlines in the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Tribunal. They had had been unsuccessful applicants for steward positions. All had extensive experience with Ansett.

The complainants successfully argued that Virgin Blue (as it was called then) encouraged a work culture that equated youth and its outward physical manifestations with the ability to have fun. The Court found that the youthful assessors identified with people who were the same age and had similar experiences, and therefore unconsciously, but invariably, preferred younger people.

The complainants also successfully contended that the assessment procedure was essentially a beauty contest, an elaborate ruse to mask an intentional choice by the assessors of the most physically attractive employees (male or female).

They women won their complaint but they still didn't get the jobs.

The time has come to name and shame these employers who are stuck in the past. Call their bluff in the daily papers and on TV news. I can assure you there are enough older reporters who would relish an age discrimination brief.

Conclusion

Potentially everyone that is born in Australia may be a victim of age prejudice. Age prejudice denies full participation to an important section of the community and leads to intergenerational tension.

A socially just society not only epitomizes the 'fair go', but must include those who want to work, whether they are old or young.