26 October 2009
Mature age manual workers
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The retirement age will be extended to 67 by 2023 in response to Australia's so-called "demographic time bomb". But what does this mean for people with manual jobs? The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union is calling for mature age quotas. Is this the answer?
Comments (14)
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Graham Bl :
28 Oct 2009 3:46:23pm
Excellent program. (Heard it rebroadcast at 3:05am).
Enough important issues were raised for Radio National to run a 13-part half-hour series of programs in 2010.
Such a series could include issues like:
(1) Halting the extinction of specific work skills.
(2) Why despising informally-gained experience and skills is losing us markets and profits.
(3) How toleration, by state anti-discrimination bodies, of unfair discrimination on the basis of age (and of military service too) is harming the economy.
(4) Why it is costing us a fortune to allow work policies be made by those who lack direct personal experience of manual work, shift work, front-counter customer service or of Stakhanovist workplaces.
Heck, just with the issues mentioned in Monday's program, ABC Radio National could run a 26-week series. :-) -
phil :
27 Oct 2009 10:22:17pm
older workers how lost thier jobs around 55-60 & find it hard to find work must make do on newstart which much lower the pension empolers do not want u if u have any litel heatlth problems lifing the retirmemt age to 67-70 only add to the problem so does lifing the super assess age one does not fitt all the full pension must be made adbilalie to those older workers how can no longer work because of health problems
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Bob :
27 Oct 2009 10:13:24pm
Manual workers in trouble? ALL mature age workers are in trouble. Double degree and part masters: MANY years experience at high level. Cannot get a job 'for love or money'. I think we need similar safeguards as were applied to women in the 1980s. Eg: all jobs where an older person applies, application must be assessed by a mature age (55+) staffer and same on interview panel. I have in the past done some HR work and can say from experience that I have seen well qualified applicants not get a guernsey due ONLY to the applicant's age. I heard comments like: 'Gee whizz, this guy is almost as old as my dad, we can't have him!' ... and 'That person would not know how to operate a computer'. (The candidate in both cases was in his early 40s and prematurely bald. These were also Federal Government white collar admin jobs. Such blatant discrimination is supposed to be illegal.)
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Pierre :
27 Oct 2009 2:16:17pm
I am near 59, living in rural area, 35 k from lismoe.. there no work for people like me , car accident, back problems, groin problems, Depression ,atheritis of knees all cronic pain & on newstart with centrelink, I have another 6 years before I get the pension..they cant even find work for people in the late 40s around this area.
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Noel Whittaker :
27 Oct 2009 11:21:43am
It is important to understand that the government is not raising the retirement age from 65 to 67, it is merely raising the age at which a person can access the aged pension. A person then who is aged 65 and is unable to work is in the same situation as a male now who is 63 and unable to work. If they can't access their superannuation, or have very little superannuation, they will be forced to rely on Centrelink benefits. The changes will not take place for several years and the program is a wake up call for people to start planning for their retirement as soon as possible.
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Joseph :
26 Oct 2009 10:40:00pm
Under our current wages system everybody basically gets paid as though they are in their prime. Obviously employers want value for their costs. Therefore they tend to discriminate against those who can't deliver this value ie mature age workers, but also the young. The solution - greater flexibility in the workplace, but then we all voted against that didn't we?
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Rob Pattison :
26 Oct 2009 7:32:27pm
I am 69. When I was 48 I came to South Australia and was told by the Education Dept that I was too old for a permament position. I've worked as a contract teacher ever since then.
What has age to do with teaching?
I now do a lot of manual labour, but know a lot about yr 12 physics and maths but can't get work.
Rob -
Teresa :
26 Oct 2009 6:55:55pm
remember that most nurses have interupted careers due to children and therefore often don't have a lot of superannuation
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Joyce Parkes :
26 Oct 2009 6:54:22pm
A dentist, after 30 or so years behind a drill, can do without the Age pension. A road worker, after 30 or so years behind a drill, cannot wait until 67 years of age for the pension. Yet how do we get to the dentist without roads?
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annie :
27 Oct 2009 6:12:17pm
This reminds me of that wonderful quote: "The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water."
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Kali :
06 Nov 2009 9:49:14am
Beautifully put. I heard a cataract surgeon on the radio recently who needed to understand this.
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annie :
26 Oct 2009 6:51:43pm
I was forced to leave my job when I turned 55 - not because I was incompetent but because I was EXPERIENCED (and therefore cost too much). Now they want us oldies to go back and "mentor" the young ones! Fine, but it was a child waving a brand new MBA that got rid of me and 15 colleagues 10 years ago. I have now got my life back, and I would not dream of going back to teach the new graduates how to do their job.
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Graham B :
30 Oct 2009 12:38:42pm
Well put, Annie.
This is Australia and that means the over-credentialled and woefully-inexperienced are terrified at the thought of someone with experience coming in to mentor them. Similarly, too many managers and business owners see mentoring as a real threat to their own influence and authority. Don't worry, for all the lofty talk about the wonders of mentoring - an outbreak of mentoring will be stamped out as soon as it appears.
By the way, it's not as though we haven't been down this same path before. Remember the messes, inefficiencies and cost-blowouts that befell the health system when thousands of highly experienced Enrolled Nurses and Assistants-In-Nursing were replaced .... don't get sick, whatever you do.
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Guests
Dave Noonan, National Secretary, Construction and General Division, Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union
Jim Barrett, Executive Director, Australian Constructors Association
Associate Professor, Anne Junor, Deputy Director, Industrial Relations Research Centre, University of NSW
Kathy Chrisfield, Occupational Health and Safety Unit Coordinator, Australian Nurses Federation (Vic)
Fiona Reynolds, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees
Further Information
Australian Nurses Federation (Vic) - Nurses return to work in hospitals project
CFMEU Construction and General National Conference
Presenter
Paul Barclay
Story Researcher and Producer
Cathy Van Extel
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