'Othering'older worker identity in recruitment (original) (raw)

Older workers and employment: managing age relations

This article reports the findings of research into the functioning of companies' and organisations' internal labour markets. Four case studies of Australian and United Kingdom public and private sector organisations have been undertaken with two principal aims : to elucidate the challenges and barriers to the employment of older workers, and to demonstrate the benefits to business and to older workers of age-aware human resource management policies. In each of the case-study organisations, age-related assumptions affected the management of knowledge and skills and the ways in which older and younger workers were employed. Managing age relations in organisations requires an understanding of the ways in which workers of different ages are perceived and how these associate with sub-optimal deployment. The article concludes by suggesting that policies directed at older workers alone will ignore the age and age-group dynamics that pervade workplaces. To promote the better deployment of younger and older individuals in rapidly transforming organisations, there is a need for policy makers, employers and employees to be attentive to the age-group relationships that currently inform workplace practices. Organisations cannot ignore these age dynamics, but should adopt ' age aware ' rather than 'age free ' practices. The recommended human-resources approach would attend to individuals' capabilities and not stereotype them by age.

Giving older workers a voice: constraints on the employment of older people in the North West of England

Work, Employment and Society, 2010

This article contributes to the literature on older workers and employment, providing a regional perspective on the relationship between age and work. The study is based on interviews in conjunction with occupational-event calendars with 56 individuals in North West England. The primary aim was to gain in-depth understanding of perceived constraints that older people feel hinder their employment prospects within the context of their daily lives. Significant constraints on employment and re-employment were identified and attributed to health, negative perceptions of self, lack of formal human capital and undervaluation of experience, financial disincentives for employers to employ older workers and prevailing ageist attitudes.

Addressing age stereotyping against older workers in employment

International Journal of Law and Management, 2020

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report on an analysis of direct age discrimination cases by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the UK courts and employment tribunals over an 11-year period. The paper focusses upon age stereotyping towards older workers and analyses whether it is endorsed at the European level and/or national level. Design/methodology/approach This research has analysed a sample of 100 employment tribunal judgments concerning direct age discrimination together with 28 CJEU decisions on direct age discrimination. Findings This paper highlights that there are a number of cases in which age stereotyping has been endorsed at the CJEU level. By contrast, the UK courts and employment tribunals have adopted a more robust approach. Research limitations/implications The main limitation is that it only considers case law from the European Court and the influence on the UK case law, without analysing the eventual decisions of the other EU member state...