Eight steps to help older Australians continue in the workplace

Canberra's recently-released Employment for Mature Age Workers Issues paper has been welcomed as a step in the right direction. Now the government needs to engage in a little educational and legislative activity to ensure it works.

It is an axiom of system dynamics that you cannot make a change to one part of a system without creating change elsewhere. The government's hope is that by amending the conditions of access to superannuation and encouraging a part-time retirement, part-time work lifestyle productivity will be increased and there will be less call on federal funds for pensions and medical care. Whether this eventuates, remains to be seen because tinkering with systems can produce unanticipated results.

Many older workers, particularly those in less interesting jobs, look forward to retirement and see it as a release. But for others there is much that is attractive in the government's new policy. Some of them do not want to retire and look forward with distaste to the prospect of being forced from their work. It offers those with little by way of superannuation the chance to accumulate extra savings. Importantly, the policy provides the opportunity for continued meaningful participation in life and feeds a sense of self-worth and self-esteem that can so easily be lost with retirement. For some people, their work is a means of self-identification, of defining who they are. This is as important to older workers as it is to the younger.

The policy seems to have more appeal to the skilled and better-educated older worker, those who have had a career in an interesting field. But is it of value to the less-skilled and to those in repetitious or uninteresting, boring jobs? That is questionable unless money is the prime motivator. It is this segment of the workforce that is the least likely to find attraction in a longer working life. Who, despite the promise of extra money, wants even more drudgery?

The same could be said of those in physically or mentally demanding work such as nurses and nurses’ aides. They might not want to continue after retirement age.

Neither might many casual workers, those who make up a little less than a third of the Australian workforce. Like those in boring jobs, casual workers who are frequently in and out of work are less likely to want to continue that way beyond retirement age. It should be recognised, however, that many casual workers prefer that mode of work because its flexibility suits their needs. There is no requirement that casual jobs be boring.

Making it Work

The new policy will stimulate workplace and social change. It will also generate friction when needed changes in workplace practice and attitude are resisted by employers or younger workers. How and where this will happen is unknown at present; however some areas can be anticipated. Now that it has instigated the change, it is the proper role of government to address these issues.

Here are eight initiatives that government, trade unions and professional bodies can take to make working after retirement age attractive to Australia's older workers.

1. Fight age discrimination.

It might be illegal but there can be no denying that older workers face difficulty in finding employment.

Younger workers can be the source of this difficulty through their ignorance of and assumptions about older workers. Some see older workers, with their experience, as a threat to their positions. Others harbour erroneous assumptions.

Dealing with this is difficult as it is almost impossible to prove discrimination on the basis of age, yet older workers seeking employment will be aware that discrimination exists. What is needed is a couple of high-profile cases where employers and managers are prosecuted for age discrimination and also a campaign of awareness about the consequences of discrimination.

2. Improve the skills and update the knowledge of older workers.

It is an assumption that the knowledge and skills of older workers are outdated. This is surely true at times but, like many assumptions, it is partly grounded in ignorance.

Government would improve the employability of older workers by making available subsidised training through existing state and private training organisations so that older workers can acquire current knowledge and upgrade their skills. It will be necessary to avoid letting them fall “between the cracks” in policy as do existing low-paid workers who do not qualify for subsidised places in TAFE yet cannot afford to pay full fees for training and so cannot improve their skills and knowledge.

3. Fund education campaigns to change assumptions and erroneous beliefs.

Although management of business and industry might consider itself enlightened, all their training and MBAs have done little to prevent managers living in ignorance about older workers and entertaining false assumptions.

Media coverage of the attitudes held by management and many younger workers indicates that they view older workers as less productive and lacking up-to-date knowledge and skills. Education to change these beliefs is needed but it needs to be backed up with a policy of encouraging older workers to retrain.

4. Improve and enforce working conditions for casual staff.

The casualisation of the workforce will be increased as more older workers opt for the government's preferred option of part-time work/part-time retirement. The introduction of legislation to improve and enforce the working conditions of casual staff is necessary to ensure they receive their full legal entitlements. Few older workers will stay on if they are exploited and their working conditions poor.

5. Improve media portrayal of older workers.

It is not the role of the media to support government policy but it would improve the self-esteem of and public attitudes to older workers if they are treated realistically by the media and stereotyping is avoided.

Portraying older people less as doddering and confused and more as active members of communities - as many are - would be a step in the right direction.

6. Employers should provide interesting work, commensurate with skills.

Older workers who choose to continue with the same company or government department in full-time work should be kept in the same position until they are ready to move. Where they opt to go part-time, a position that uses their skills and knowledge at more or less the same level in the organisation would be appropriate.

Encouraging those without full-time positions and who find themselves looking for part-time work around retirement age will best be done if employers place them in positions in which they can use their skills rather than in menial, boring work.

7. Make work places older-worker friendly

Just as the call for family-friendly workplaces implies new working arrangements and procedures, so will making the workplace conducive to older workers, especially where part-time work is involved. And just as that call has been resisted by employers, so too will moves to make working life conducive to older workers be resisted.

More older workers implies changes in the workplace. Older workers employed in accordance with their experience are less likely to tolerate workplace bullying and the incompetence of the inexperienced younger manager. They will also need flexibility in employment and the capacity to juggle working times and arrangements to attend to family business.

This should be welcomed because the organisational culture in many workplaces is in dire need of improvement.

8. Avoid the temptation of compulsion.

If the government's plans for longer working life fail to achieve the anticipated savings there will be the temptation to move them from optional to compulsory.

This would mean raising the retirement age, as some commentators have already suggested. It would also lead to older workers tramping the streets in an unfulfilled search for jobs few employers would be prepared to offer them, judging by present conditions. This would be degrading for the older workers, disrespectful of government and would affirm existing opinion of business and industry management as greedy and mean spirited.