Summary
This article focuses on the ambiguity on the views of retaining “older workers” in the workforce in the Australian community. In advanced and developing countries, there is an uprising aged population situation, including Australia.
Demographics have proven that over the next few decades, the median age of its population will increase to that of the “older workers” category. This means that there is a scarcity of younger people resulting in a dominance of the aged population in the workforce. However, employers are unwilling to include them in the workforce. They are considered as the last priority when making employment choices. Employers would rather invest in training for the youth than on the older workers. However, this is only true to a certain extent for certain sectors. The business sector values experience more than the age factor.
Government intervention by implanting certain policies and practices may or may not be helpful to the older workers unless the attitude of employers change. There would be a limitation in employment options should such attitudes continue, however it has been proven slow to change despite knowing that they have no choice. Ideally, government policies and practices have to support the employment and re-employment of older workers. This should be integrated with processes to transform the perspectives of employers towards a more positive consideration of the capabilities and potentialities of these workers.
The government has identified the ageing population as one of its main priority. There are policies and community education campaigns to counter discrimination against mature workers. However, the policies implemented by the government have to be supported by strong legislative foundation and put into action, if not it will be futile in changing employers’ views with no valuable outcomes. Besides policies, the government also
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