September 2005

 

Some companies are leading the New Zealand fight against the skills shortage by working harder to retain older workers, and using flexible contract arrangements to lure back those who have retired. But age discrimination in employment is still showing that a major shift in employer attitudes is needed.

 

IBM New Zealand’s ‘intergenerational diversity strategy’ is a serious hedge against the forecasted IT skills-shortage. The strategy will include changes in flexible working, phased retirement and headhunting retired workers from other companies. But while some corporations are moving with the times, age discrimination in employment remains worrying, according to EEO Commissioner Judy McGregor. A total of 23% of age-discrimination employment complaints to the Human Rights Commission are from people aged 60 and over. 

 

The proportion of New Zealanders over 65 years will double to 26 per cent by 2051, and recent research shows that New Zealand’s ageing population will break the mould by spreading working life out longer and more thinly. “Many employees aged 65 years and older are keen and will stay on at work with the right encouragement,” says McGregor, “but some employers will have to change their thinking and overcome negative stereotypes about the value of mature workers.” 

 

McGregor has just published ‘Lifeswork: Celebrating Older Workers in New Zealand’, which profiles New Zealanders between the ages of 70 and 95 who are still in paid work – extraordinary cases now, but not in the future. The book includes a range of lively and talented personalities such as Dulcie Richards, the irrepressible 92-year old park-toilet cleaner who has dubbed her loos “Dulcie’s goldmine”, and Dr Merimeri Penfold, 85-year old Human Rights Commissioner and renowned Māori translator of Shakespeare’s sonnets. The workers include bookshop owners, scientists, artists, boat-builders, pilots and teachers. 74-year old Motueka tree pruner John Arnold says of retirement, “I’d sooner be dead.”