Australian Human Rights Commission Calls for Ending Barriers to Working Past the 60's

The Australian Human Rights Commission has issued a paper detailing how age bars in workers compensation, income insurance, and licencing block willing and able people from continuing in work through their 60s and beyond. In "Working Past Our 60s: Reforming Laws and Policies for the Older Worker," calls for the elimination of all these age bars. Susan Ryan, the Age Commissioner, states: "My hope, in publishing this paper, is to spread awareness of these forms of age discrimination and thus encourage decision makers to devise and implement positive reforms."

According to the paper, the "structural barriers not only create financial and security difficulties for people who work into their 60s and beyond, they also send a message to older workers that they should not be in the workforce." Specifically, the Commission argues that:

• "[e]xtending workers compensation, income protection and superannuation provisions to all people who remain productive in the workforce will go some way towards ensuring that older Australians enjoy the same rights as the rest of the working population." and
  
• "[e]nsuring that the licensing and regulatory requirements do not discriminate on the basis of age will also provide opportunities for people to work for as long as they are fit and productive."

Source: Australian Human Rights Commission News Release (June 6, 2012)