HANDICAP OF AGE

Waikato Times, Volume 123, Issue 20692, 30 December 1938, Page 2

HANDICAP OF AGE

PROCURING EMPLOYMENT league investigation SKILL VERSUS STRENGTH l (From a Correspondent) GENEVA, Oct. 21. Weighing arguments that have been advanced for and against the employment of older workers, a preliminary report on “ Discrimination Against Elderly Workers,” which was submitted to the governing body of the International Labour Office when it met in London this month, finds that “in general, a hiring policy applying age as a decisive criterion appears to be unjustified.'’ “ The- essence of the matter,” declares the report, “ seems to be that the older worker is preferable on the very important condition that he has retained sufficient physical ability for his job, to the performance of which he ran bring experience and reliability. He may be particularly valuable where quality, rather than quantity, is required. Preference, on the contrary, will be given to the j younger worker when physical strength, rapidity of work, and adaptation to new methods are called for.” Hence it concludes that ” a rational hiring policy would consist in classifying jobs according to the capacity of I lie individual.” Deterioration of Skill Prepared by the International Labour Office at the request of Government, employers and workers' representatives on the governing body, the report finds reason to believe that older workers are no more likely to lose their jobs than younger ones, but that once having lost his job it is more difficult for an older worker to find fresh employment. ” A certain amount of deterioration in skill,” it explains, “ is necessarily involved in long spells of unemployment, which becomes a definite handicap in obtaining fresh employment, especially in the case of skilled workers.” And it suggests that the present disproportion of unemployment among older workers “is probably due in part to the fact that, when recovery came, the younger workers generally, who were abie to adjust themselves with greater readiness to recent technological changes in industry, and also the more adaptable of the older workers, succeeded in obtaining employment, while tbe less efficient remained unemployed.” As regards the time of life at which age becomes a disadvantage in obtaining employment, the report fixes this “ very generally ” at “ around 45,” when the physiological efficiency of the average person begins to decline. Causes of Discrimination Examining possible causes of discrimination against elderly workers, the report finds that while, on the one hand, mechanisation has favoured them by doing away with much heavy labour, on the other hand it has aggravated their position by creating new forms of work, the increased speed and intensity of which are so exhausting that older workers cannot stand the strain.

Some employers, the report points 1 out, prefer older workers on the t ground that they are more experienced I and efficient and have better judg- i merit; they are best fitted for certain I jobs, especially where quality is im- 1 portant: they are more reliable and ] reduce labour turn-over. Other employers, however, object to them on 1 the ground that they are unable to 1 maintain a piece-work pace: they lack ] muscular strength; and their mental ( processes show signs of slowing down. Discussing possible discrimination growing out of the annual costs of insurance risks for sickness, invalidity, old age and death, the report admits that opportunities of employment for older workers may be restricted by the desire of employers to prevent an increase in insurance contributions. Th© Accident Risk But the belief sometimes expressed by American employers that older workers are a more expensive accident risk, is held by the report to be unfounded “as regards industry * generally, though not perhaps for, I each industry separately.” in this | connection, it points out that while the proportion of accidents resulting in permanent incapacity or death is -reater among older workers, they are less liable to accidents than younger men. Hence, says the report, ihe greater cost of benefits to older workers is balanced by tlie lower frequency of the accidents they experience. After enumerating the various remedies that have been proposed with a view to improving the position of the older worker, tiie report examines in some detail the effect of probable population changes on this problem. The gradual ageing of the population, which has been in progress since the beginning of the present century, it says, will no doubt result in decreasing the proportion of younger workers while increasing the proportion of older workers. Consequently, it says, it is not impossible that in the distant future a lime may come when industry may be obliged by Ihe scarcity of younger labour to have recourse to older workers and that the problem may thus generate its own remedy.