The 'burden' that should be a blessing (2008)

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The 'burden' that should be a blessing

Author: Elizabeth Broderick

Publication: Australian Financial Review, Page 75 (Wednesday, 1 October 2008)

By Elizabeth Broderick, federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner and Commissioner responsible for Age Discrimination.

We all know that Australia has an ageing population and faces a critical skills shortage.

Today, on the International Day of Older Persons, we must grasp the reality that we, as a society, hold part of the solution in our hands.

Valuing our mature age workers provides a lifeline to an employment market struggling to find skilled and knowledgeable talent.

We’re not short on pockets of ignorance – with workplaces that put older workers out to pasture and recruitment agencies which disregard anyone over 45 years of age. They’re selling their clients short, not to mention the potential unlawfulness of this.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data indicates that the proportion of the Australian population aged 65 years and over is likely to double between 2007 and 2056. The number of those aged 85 and over is set to quadruple.

As Commissioner responsible for Age Discrimination,  it concerns me that all too often our approach to the looming demographic shift is to regard the aged population as a financial and social burden rather than a mine of talent to be tapped.

That’s our first mistake. Let’s stop talking of the ageing population as a ‘burden’. It is patronising and potentially discriminatory.

Older people have paid taxes all their adult lives and continue to contribute to our community and our economy in a number of important ways.

There are countless examples of mature age people working and achieving in their respective fields. Older people are also a significant source of informal care for family members and undertake high levels of volunteering.

If nothing else, we must realise that to build a strong economy, we are reliant on the ongoing contribution of older people now more than ever.

In 2005, the federal government’s  ‘Workforce Tomorrow’ report noted that Australia’s place in the global economy is likely to be affected by the ageing population and skill shortages. We will need to increasingly rely on previously under-utilised labour sources, such as mature age workers.  

I find it concerning that against this backdrop, the Australian Human Rights Commission has received 417 age discrimination complaints between mid 2004 to mid 2008, with 73 per cent of these being employment-related.  

Ageist attitudes still exist in Australian workplaces.  Workplaces must change and become ‘mature age friendly’ because let’s face it, if you weren’t valued, would you stay?

Apart from anything else, such attitudes are unlawful.

Employers, government and other organisations must think innovatively about making workforce participation attractive to the mature aged.

For example, employers should retrain,over the work cycle and offer phased retirement options . Government should continue  to review laws and policies in this area..

This is not about forcing every mature age person to work. This is about choice.

On the International Day of Older Persons, we have a long overdue opportunity to honour the significant contribution older people have made and continue to make to the strength of our economy and to the health and well being of our country.

In fact, our future depends on it.