Federal Government plans to reintroduce legislation to raise the pension age to 70 by 2035 has many unemployed older Australians terrified of future pension age increases.
In July, departing Age Discrimination Commissioner Susan Ryan warned of the ageing revolution crisis and highlighted the additional hurdles that older Australians have to climb to gain employment. Widespread discrimination against older workers, including ageist mindsets, were exposed in the National Willing to Work report, recently released by the Australian Human Rights Commission.
Council on the Ageing (COTA) ACT Executive Director Jenny Mobbs believes that older candidates are too often missing out on jobs. COTA claims that the Federal Government’s recruitment practices, which require candidates to disclose their age, reinforces the problem.
“The selection panels in the public service can be quite a young group of people, and they don’t want their mum or their dad walking in and taking over in the workforce,” Ms Mobbs said. “Younger people don’t like to work with older people who’ve got much more experience because they feel threatened.”
COTA and various other organisations offer seminars for older workers on how to get interviews and re-enter the workforce, as well as how to compete with younger candidates for jobs. Many participants are ready and willing to work, but there is an overwhelming frustration with the number of knockbacks received.
Are you currently looking for a job or have gone through the process in the past year? If so, please share your experiences in the comments below.
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