Comment
Fighting Age Discrimination – US Style
The Australian Government needs to lift its game in providing assistance to older workers. And they could do worse than follow the US example. VERONICA SHEEN, the Council on the Ageing’s deputy national director reports.
Age discrimination legislation with teeth! Programmes for older workers having problems in the labour force! A corporate culture with a genuine interest in the challenges of an ageing workforce! Sounds fantastic.
Amidst much of the negative press about the US, such as the holes in its health care system and its miserly social welfare, there are nevertheless some lessons that Australia can learn about how to manage its ageing workforce and how to give its older workers a fair chance.
In the US, federal age discrimination legislation on employment has been in place since 1967 and applies to people aged 40 and over. The legislation covers:
• hiring and firing;
• job advertisements;
• recruitment;
• training;
• other terms and conditions of employment.
While the US still has problems with wily employers evading the legislation, nevertheless it does provide a reasonably robust protection for older workers and a significant number of complaints are filed and reconciled each year.
There is also a range of options for older workers who become unemployed.
For example, the Senior Community Service Employment Program has been in operation since the late 1960s and has a fine record of helping hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged mature Americans obtain training and on-the-job experience needed to improve their lives and provide economic independence.
The SCESP provides opportunities for mature workers to obtain technology training for new careers in high-tech industries using non-traditional teaching methods. The introductory courses are suitable for most people, requiring minimal experience using a computer.
There are also some specific employment placement agencies for mature workers in the US such as the National Older Workers Careers Centre. Such organisations are geared to take account of the special needs of older workers and are prepared to go in to bat for their clients with employers.
The Council on the Ageing is not claiming that all is perfect over there. Nor are we doing an Australian ‘cultural cringe’. There are many aspects of American culture and policy that we most definitely do not want. But we are saying that there are some lessons to be learned from the US about giving real protection and support to Australia’s older workers.
• Veronica Sheen’s address to the US conference The Aging of the Global Workforce is available on the COTA website at www.cota.org.au A new report about Australia’s ageing workforce Older Australians: A Working Future is available from COTA – (03) 9820 2655 or cota@cota.org.au
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