Eight steps to help older Australians continue in the workplace

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.