Imagine being told that your decades of experience are a liability rather than an asset — that is the reality facing hundreds of thousands of older Victorians. At the same time as people are needing and choosing to work longer, ageist attitudes and practices are shutting them out.
Age discrimination in Victorian workplaces is common, largely invisible to enforcement agencies, and getting worse. An almost doubling of active employer exclusion of older workers in just two years reveals a problem that existing law and complaints mechanisms are failing to adequately address. Systemic change, not just individual complaints, is required.
This briefing outlines the scale and nature of age discrimination in Victorian workplaces, the policy and legal landscape, and proposes nine broad areas for action.