Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T04:31:08.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Older workers in Australia: The myths, the realities and the battle over workforce ‘flexibility’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Chris Kossen  and
Cec Pedersen
Chris Kossen
Affiliation:
School of Humanities and Communication, Faculty of Arts, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba QLD, Australia
Cec Pedersen
Affiliation:
School of Management & Marketing, Faculty of Business, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba QLD, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A decisive 2004 fourth term win for the Howard Government and control over the Senate provided the Australian government with a mandate to further deregulate the labour market in the name of ‘flexibility’. This paper uses a critical perspective to challenge the wisdom of neo-liberal market economics as the driving force behind the rapid expansion of non-traditional ‘flexible’ forms of work and the persistence of a deficit model/perspective that continues to devalue the human capital value of older workers. It is argued that these trends will contribute to ongoing under utilisation of ‘older’ labour and intensification of skill shortages, in part, as a result of lack of investment in maintaining human capital. In responding to Australia's rapidly ageing workforce the Howard Government has adopted modest measures designed to counter age based discrimination and encourage workforce participation. However, participation rates among older workers in Australia have remained one of the lowest among Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries. This paper argues that the Government's labour market deregulation policies are reducing the availability of jobs that provide sufficient working conditions and remuneration to make workforce participation attractive. The erosion of employment conditions associated with ‘flexible’ workforce reform leads to underemployment, an employment outcome that often fails to meet the needs of many older workers. More recently, however, the Government has embarked on reforms that appear to provide genuine incentives aimed specifically at attracting workforce participation by older workers, but unfortunately these are by and large confined to those aged 60 years and over.

Keywords

Older workersmature aged workersageismage discriminationdeficit model of ageingstereotypelabour market deregulationlabour market reformworkforce flexibilityflexible labourhuman capital investmentindustrial relationsworkplace relationsWorkChoices
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , March 2008 , pp. 73 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

7.30 Report (2007) 17 05, IR Continues to Plague Coalition and Labor Both, ABC Television, 7.30pm.Google Scholar
7.30 Report (2006) 18 05, Older Workers Sign Up for Apprenticeships, ABC Television, 7.30pm.Google Scholar
Access Economics (2001) Population Ageing and the Economy, Commonwealth of Australia, CanberraGoogle Scholar
Allen Consulting Group (2005) World Class Skills for Wold Class Industries: Employers' Perspectives on Skilling in Australia: Report to the Australian Industry Group, The Allen Consulting Group, Melbourne, accessed on 5 June 2007 at http://www.aigroup.asn.au/aigroup/pdf/publications/reports/general_reports/World_Skills.Google Scholar
The Australian (2007) 4 05, Howard Softens WorkChoices. p.1.Google Scholar
ABS (1999a) The Labour Force Australia (6203.0) Canberra.Google Scholar
ABS (1999b) Older People, Australia: A Social Report (4109.0) Canberra.Google Scholar
ABS (2002a) Australian Social Trends (2002) Canberra.Google Scholar
ABS (2002b) Labour Force, 10 2002 (6203.0) Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Government (2007) A Stronger Safety Net for Working Australians (Advertisement) Courier Mail, 5 05 2007 p.28.Google Scholar
Australian Financial Review (2007) 8 05, WorkChoices Softened to Combat Rudd, p.1.Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Management (AIM) (2006) The new workplace relations system June 2006 survey results, Managing the Future Survey Series: Survey 1, AIM, St Kilda.Google Scholar
Barker, K (1998) ‘Toiling for piece-rates and accumulating deficits: contingent work in Higher Education’, in Barker, K. & Christensen, K., Contingent Work: American Employment Relations in Transition, Cornell University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Bauder, H (2001) ‘Culture in the labor market: segmentation theory and perspectives of place’, Progress in Human Geography, 25 37–52.Google Scholar
Bennington, L (2001) ‘Age discrimination: converging evidence from four Australian studies’, Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 13: 125–134.Google Scholar
Bennington, L and Wein, R (2000) ‘Antidiscrimination legislation in Australia: fair, effective and efficient or irrelevant’, International Journal of Manpower, 21: 21–33.Google Scholar
Bishop, B (1999) The National strategy for an ageing Australia: employment for mature age workers issues paper, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra.Google Scholar
Black, D (1995) Discrimination in an equilibrium search model, Journal of Labor Economics, 13: 309–334.Google Scholar
Blenkin, M (2006) Age-Friendly But no Dad's Army, Courier Mail, 12 05, p.22.Google Scholar
Borland, J (2004) Transitions to Retirement: A review: Melbourne Institute Working Paper 3(05), Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne.Google Scholar
Bureau of Labour Market Research (BLMR) (1983, Retired, Unemployed or at Risk: Changes in the Australian Labour Market for Older Workers, Research Report No.4, Australian Government Printing Service, Canberra.Google Scholar
Burgess, J and de Ruyter, A (2000) Declining job quality in Australia: Another hidden cost of unemployment, Economic and Labour Relations Review, 11: 246–269.Google Scholar
Cau-Bareille, D and Marquie, J (1998) Ageing workers, learning and job training, in Cau-Bareille, D., Marquie, J. & Volkoff, (Eds), Working with Age, Taylor & Francis, London.Google Scholar
Charnass, N and Bosman, E (1992) Human factors and age, in Craik, F and Salthouse, T (Eds) The Handbook of Ageing and Cognition, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Chronicle (2007) 23 05, WorkChoices Wrong – Hockey, J. p.18.Google Scholar
Costello, P (2006) A Plan to Simplify and Streamline Superannuation: Media release 042, Treasury, Commonwealth of Australia 9 05.Google Scholar
Courier Mail (2007) 4 05, Howard Bends on Work Laws, p.1.Google Scholar
Crouch, C (1998) Labor market regulations, social policy and job creation, Job Creation: The Role of Labor Market Institutions, Gual, J (ed), E Elgar Publishing Limited, Cheltenham UK.Google Scholar
Crowe, D (2007) Ad blitz has Howard on the defensive, Australian Financial Review, 23 05, p.3.Google Scholar
Eardley, T (2000) Working but poor? Low pay and poverty in Australia, The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 11: 309–337.Google Scholar
Encel, E (1998) Age discrimination, in Patrickson, M and Hartman, L (Eds), Managing An Ageing Workforce, Business & Professional Publishing, Warriewood NSW.Google Scholar
Encel, S (2003) Age Can Work: The Case for Older Australians Staying in the Workforce, A report to the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and the Business Council of Australia (BCA), Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney.Google Scholar
Encel, E and Studencki, H (2004) Older workers: Can they succeed in the job market?, Australasian Journal on Ageing, 23: 33–37.Google Scholar
Estes, C (1991) The new political economy of ageing, in Minkler, M and Estes, C (Eds) Critical Perspectives on Ageing, Eds., Amityville, New York.Google Scholar
Estes, C and Binney, E (1991) The biomedicalisation of aging: Dangers and dilemmas', in Minkler, M and Estes, C (Eds) Critical Perspectives on Ageing: The Political and Moral Economy of Growing Old, Baywood Publishing, New York.Google Scholar
Fellowes, D (2001) ‘Striking gold in a silver mine: Leveraging senior workers as knowledge champions’, World at Work, Fourth Quarter: 62–66.Google Scholar
Hale, N (1990) The Older Worker: Effective Strategies for Management and Human Resource Development, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Harris, D (1990) Sociology of Ageing, 2nd Edn. Harper & Row Publishers, New York.Google Scholar
Hartmann, L (1998) The impact of trends in labour-force participation in Australia, in Managing An Ageing Workforce, Patrickson, M and Hartman, L (Eds) Business & Professional Publishing, Warriewood NSW.Google Scholar
Hassan, M (2006) Labour Shortages Usher in New Era of Constrained Growth, Media Release, BIS Shrapnel (Business Research and Forecasting), 26 06 (2006.Google Scholar
Hendricks, J and Hendricks, D (1986) Aging in Mass Society: Myths and Realities, 3rd Edn. Little Brown, Boston.Google Scholar
Hiebert, D (2004) Local geographies of labor market segmentation: Montreal, Toronoto, and Vancouver, 1991, Economic Geography, 75: 338–369.Google Scholar
Hooyman, N and Asuman-Kiyak, H (1993) Social Gerontology: A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective, Allyan & Bacon, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
House of Representatives: Standing committee on Employment, Education and Workplace 2000, Age Counts: An Inquiry into Issues Specific to Mature-age Workers, Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Howard, J (2005) (Prime Minister) Address to Parliament – Workplace Relations Reform, Parliament House, Canberra, accessed at http://www.pm.gov.au/news/speeches/speech1446.html on 26 May 2005.Google Scholar
Joe, C and Yoong, P (2004) Harnessing the knowledge assets of older workers: A work in progress report, Conference Paper, Decision Support in an Uncertain and Complex world,: International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), Tuscany accessed on 5 June 2005 at http://dsslab.sims.monash.edu/DSS2004/proceedings/pdf/38_Joe_Yoong.pdfGoogle Scholar
Landt, J and Pech, J (2001) Work and Welfare in Australia: The Changing Role of Income Support, Australian Social Policy, Canberra.Google Scholar
Le, A and Miller, P (1999) Job Quality and the Churning Pool of Unemployed, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occasional Paper, (6293.0.00.003), Canberra.Google Scholar
Mitchell, W and Muysken, J (2003) Employment Dynamics and Full-time Job Destruction in Australia Working Paper 03–02, Centre of full employment and equity, University of Newcastle, Newcastle.Google Scholar
Moody, H (1998) Ageing: Concepts and Controversies, 2nd Edn. Pine Forge Press, California.Google Scholar
Nohria, N, Joyce, W and Roberson, B (2003) What really works, Harvard Business Review, 07 2003: 42.Google Scholar
Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) (2005) Ageing and Employment Policies: Australia, OECD, Paris.Google Scholar
Patrickson, M (1998) The trend toward early retirement, in Patrickson, M and Hartmann, L (Eds) Managing an Ageing Workforce, Business & Professional Publishing, Warriewood NSW.Google Scholar
Patrickson, M (2003) Human resource management and the aging workforce, in Human Resource Management, Challenges and Future Directions, Wiesner, R and Millet, B (Eds) Wiley, Brisbane QLD.Google Scholar
Peetz, D (2005a) Hollow shells: the alleged link between individual contracting and productivity growth, Journal of Political Economy, 56: 32–55.Google Scholar
Peetz, D (2005b) ‘Retrenchment and labour market disadvantage: role of age, job tenure and casual employment’, The Journal of Industrial Relations, 47: 294–309.Google Scholar
Phillipson, C and Smith, A (2005) Extending Working Life: A Review of the Research Literature, Department of Work and Pensions, London.Google Scholar
Pickersgill, R, Briggs, C, Kitay, J, O'Keeffe, S and Gillezeau, A (1996) Productivity of Mature and Older Workers: Employers' Attitudes and Experiences, Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Teaching (ACIRRT), Monograph 13, Sydney.Google Scholar
Plett, P (1990) Training Older workers in Industrialised Countries, International Labour Office: Training Policies Branch, Geneva.Google Scholar
Pocock, B (2003) The Work/life Collision, Federation Press, Sydney.Google Scholar
Productivity Commission (2002) Intergenerational Report, Commonwealth Government of Australia, Canberra.Google Scholar
Productivity Commission (2005) Economic Implications of an Ageing Australia, Commonwealth Government of Australia, Canberra.Google Scholar
Ranzijn, R, Carson, E and Winefield, A (2004) Barriers to mature age re-employment: perceptions about desirable work-related attributes held by job-seekers and employers, International Journal of Organisational Behaviour, 8: 559–570.Google Scholar
Rubery, J and Grimshaw, D (2003) The Organization of Employment: An International Perspective, Palgrave MacMillian, New York.Google Scholar
Salthouse, T and Maurer, T (1996) Aging, job performance, and job development, in Birren, J and Schaie, K (Eds) Handbook of the Psychology of Ageing, 4th Edn. Academic Press, San Diego.Google Scholar
Schulz, J, Bobowski, A and Crown, W (1991) Economics of Population Aging: The ‘greying’ of Australia, Japan and the US, Auburn House, New York.Google Scholar
Sheen, V (2001) Investing in the Future: Australia's Ageing Workforce: Submission to Federal Budget, The Council of the Ageing (Australia) (COTA), Melbourne.Google Scholar
Simpson, P, Greller, M and Stroh, L (2002) Variation in human capital investment activity by age, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 61: 109–138.Google Scholar
Smith, A and Billett, S (2005) Enhancing enterprise expenditure on VET: Policy goals and mechanisms, Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 57: 5–23.Google Scholar
Steinberg, M, Donald, K, Najman, J and Skerman, H (1996) Attitudes of Employers and Employees Towards Older Workers in a Climate of Antidiscrimination, Australian Journal on Ageing, 15: 154–158.Google Scholar
Taylor, P and Walker, A (1994) The ageing workforce – Employers attitudes towards older workers, Work, Employment & Society, 8: 569–591.Google Scholar
Toner, P (2000) Changes in industrial structure in the Australian construction industry: Causes and implications, The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 11: 291–307.Google Scholar
Trindler, C, Hulme, G and McCarthy, U (1992) Employment: The Role of Work in the Third Age, The Carnegie Inquiry into the Third Age, London.Google Scholar
Van den Heuvel, A (1999) Mature age workers: are they a disadvantaged group in the labour market?, Australian Bulletin of Labour, 25: 11–22.Google Scholar
Watson, I, Buchanan, J, Campbell, I and Briggs, C (2003) Fragmented futures: New Challenges in Working Life, Federation Press, Annandale NSW.Google Scholar
Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Act (2005, accessed on 21 October 2006 at http://www.aph.gov.au/library/intguide/law/workchoicesbill.htm.Google Scholar
Wooden, M (2005) Australia's Industrial Relations Reform Agenda, Conference paper, 34th Conference of Economists, 26–28 09, University of Melbourne.Google Scholar
Wooden, M, Van den Heuvel, A and Cully, M (2001) Barriers to Training for Older Workers and Possible Policy Solutions, National Institute of Labour Studies and Curtain Consulting, Flinders University of South Australia.Google Scholar
Wright, S and Coopes, A (2006) Campaign growing, Courier Mail, 26 06 p.2.Google Scholar