Australian mandatory retirement challenged

Abstract

During the 1970s Australia experienced declines in participation rates of older workers similar to the USA. However, in Australia it has taken more than 10 years to enact the same policy changes in age discrimination in employment. In order to promote a considered internationalism, as opposed to a parochial resistance to international ideas, this paper consid er s two qu e stions about the case of mandatory retirement, namely "Why did Australia ta ke so long to change?" and "What has been learned from the North Ame rican expe ri ence? " On the first question, it is argued that Australians are begi nning to mo ve only slowly from a European view of retirement as leisure in "old age" to wa rd s m o re active notions in No rth Ame rica and As ia . Elites in government are responding to a growi ng political consciousness among t he aged who a re seeking a new deal in rights of access to wo~k. On the second question it is argued tha t the North American experience leads us to soften claims about age d iscrimi nation and to be less optimistic about major improvements in older work er's p artici p ation arising from legislation outlawing age discrimination. This evidence can reduce the contentiousness of the issue in Australia and allow focus on the more p ractical issues of how to make the legislation work to protect the rights of older people. Show more