I would like to make some comments on the article titled ‘Age discrimination commonplace’ in issue 51, 10 March 2004.
I would like to make some comments on the article titled ‘Age discrimination commonplace’ in issue 51, 10 March 2004.
By way of background, I am a 57-year-old HR professional with more than 30 years experience and have been directly impacted by age discrimination in my search for employment over the past four years since my last retrenchment.
At present, I am working for the NSW Police in a contract capacity.
I joined a support group – TECG (The Executive Co-ordination Group) – two years ago and have been active in our attempts to raise awareness of the extent of age discrimination in the workplace and especially with recruitment agencies.
TECG now has 200 members and there are some horror stories among our membership about their experiences and treatment in trying to rejoin the workforce.
Myself and two other members have just completed interviews and filming with the ABC’s ‘Compass’ program for an episode of the show focusing on the experiences of aged workers seeking to find employment. Screening dates have not been set as yet.
My thoughts on the article relate to the comments by John Plummer, president of RCSA.
He downplays the criticisms that the recruitment industry is averse to employing older workers. He states that he has “heard the criticism but in many cases it’s unfounded” and that the agencies are “provided with a job spec from a client that requires certain duties, skills and experience at a certain rate of pay”.
He further states that “the older worker is not willing to accept … all of those conditions and that the rate of pay is probably the most difficult issue for the older worker”.
Many of the members of TECG would accept work with whatever reasonable conditions were attached to the role and are very realistic and flexible in their expectations, just to get back into the workforce and show what they can do.
In my own case, in the past four years I have worked as a HR contractor on term appointments, in full and part-time roles. Salary for these roles has ranged from a high of $120,000 per annum to $33,000 per annum. Unlike the views expressed by Mr Plummer, dignity comes not from the level of remuneration, but being once again actively engaged in the workforce, using one’s skills and abilities and providing for yourself and your family.
I have first-hand experience of being rejected by recruitment agencies on the grounds of age – on occasions directly put to me, as this did not meet the client’s overt or covert role specification, regardless of my experience, skills, qualifications and competence.
Mr Plummer should keep in mind that recruitment agencies are predominantly ‘sales driven’ organisations and their objective is to satisfy client briefs, whatever they may contain, in order to obtain repeat business.
Their objective is not to find the candidate work or to source the best candidate for the role. Their objective is to put a shortlist up to the client that meets their stated or unstated specifications. This will impress the client and allow them to choose the best candidate for the role from the provided shortlist. The flow on is a level of satisfaction with the agency which will ensure them repeat business from that client.
Ron Ray
