By Amanda Curatore

Australia has an ageing population, and our workforce is no exception. People are living longer, healthier lives, and subsequently working until much later in life than previous generations. Australian businesses must understand not only the risks associated with age-based discrimination in the workplace but the benefits that having older employees can have on a business.

Experience, professional knowledge, and age diversity are three of the greatest advantages of recruiting older workers, however, nearly a quarter of Australian businesses don’t actively implement any recruitment practices that encourage age diversity.

Age-based discrimination occurs when an employee is treated less favourably due to their age, than a person of another age would be treated in similar circumstances.

The primary legislative instrument that governs age-based discrimination is the Age Discrimination Act 2004 (Cth) (Act). The main purpose of the Act is to ensure that people of all ages have equal rights before the law and applies to all types of employment relationships, including full-time, part-time, casual, contract workers, private sector employees, government employees, and apprentices and trainees.

The Act makes it unlawful to discriminate based on age at any point in the employment cycle, including advertising and recruiting for jobs, considering promotion opportunities, terms and conditions of employment and also termination.

Examples of age-based discrimination can include:

  • advertising a position on the condition that the candidate be in a certain age range;
  • forcing someone to retire, making a position redundant, or terminating an employee due to their age;
  • harassment or bullying based on the age of an employee; or
  • assuming that an employee is unable to perform certain requirements of a role based on their age.

What are the benefits of employing older workers?

Following the Employing Older Workers Report 2021 conducted by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), it was revealed that 60 per cent of respondents found that older workers departing their business led to a loss of key skills within their organisation.

Older workers have had more time than their younger counterparts to develop valuable working relationships and skills that they can lend to an organisation. Some examples of the benefits of employing older workers include:

  • Increased work and life experience;
  • Age diversity within a business;
  • Provide mentoring to less experienced employees;
  • Leadership qualities; and
  • Diverse perspectives.

HR Assured is an equal opportunity employer and advocate and is well-equipped to assist your business with any questions relating to hiring older employees, the onboarding process, and the employee lifecycle. 

For more information about employing older workers and what this might look like for your business, clients should contact the HR Assured team via our 24/7 Telephone Advisory Service.

Not an HR Assured client? Contact us for an informal chat today via email at horton@hrassured.com.au or call 1300 201 451.

Amanda Curatore is a qualified Solicitor at FCB and HR Assured. Amanda is highly experienced in providing workplace relations advice and assistance to clients in a wide range of matters including employment contracts, modern award interpretation, managing performance, bullying and harassment, terminations, and managing risk.