FED: Over 45 to face workplace discrimination

AAP General News (Australia)
08-06-2009
FED: Over 45 to face workplace discrimination

CANBERRA, Aug 6 AAP - Over 45 and over the hill?

That's the growing perception of Australian employers and it's getting harder and harder
to overcome, federal Age Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick believes.

In a speech to the Australian Institute of Family Studies on Thursday, Ms Broderick
said age discrimination remained one of the biggest factors limiting workplace participation
for people over 45.

And it's a growing issue that knows no boundaries, superseding biases related to gender,
race, religion and sexuality.

"It is not someone else's issue - it can happen to all of us," she said in the speech.

As a 47-year-old, Ms Broderick said she was appalled when told at a recent briefing
that 45 and onwards was considered mature-age.

By 2020, two out of five people in the workplace would be aged 45 and over.

"We should not be made to feel we have reached the scrap heap of working life when
we turn 45, particularly when most of us would consider we have at least 10 to 25 working
years left in us," she said.

"The increase in the age pension age to 67 signals an expectation for us to work longer.

Unaddressed unlawful age discrimination emerges as a very clear problem in relation to
employment in our community."

Discrimination against "older" workers - perceived to be slower and harder to train
- was entrenched in social thinking, said Ms Broderick.

She called for a change in perception.

Just take a look at the likes of Barack Obama, Elle Macpherson, Madonna and Julia Gillard
- all are over 45 and proving it is no barrier to success, she said.

Unaddressed, she warned age discrimination was likely to touch many Australians - and
earlier than they may have thought.

Australia has lower workplace participation rate for mature age workers than most OECD countries.

AAP cj/rl/mmr

KEYWORD: MATURE

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