Older Workers Are Being Pushed To The Sidelines
The Senior Legislative Coalition of Eastern Washington is tackling age discrimination in the workplace, and it’s starting with the American Association of Retired Persons.
“Everyone knows age discrimination in employment is rampant,” says coalition chairman Frank Yuse of Spokane. “I know I experienced it. I know how it feels. It is very difficult to prove, but employers get away with it all the time.
“At our last meeting of the coalition,” Yuse said, “we heard a report from Aging & Long Term Care of Eastern Washington on the problem of age discrimination in Spokane.
“Several around the room related their experiences,” he said. “One of our own coalition leaders described the pressures brought to bear on him in a large firm where he was responsible for personnel management. He was given to understand that he was expected to do this and do that to create an uncomfortable environment for older workers, let it be known they are not valued, make it difficult for them to stay, all the while giving lip service to equality in the workplace.
“Corporations large and small discriminate in ways that are not obviously illegal - but effective,” Yuse said.
Among the steps management can take to marginalize older workers, Yuse said, is to eliminate their positions, revise their job descriptions, under-utilize their abilities, chip away at pay, undermine the employees’ self worth and others’ confidence in them.
Why? For the short-term bottom line. With their work experiences and longevity, older employees typically earn more. Their benefits cost more.
That basically is the thrust of Aging & Long Term Care’s report, Yuse said.
The so-called Senior Employment Assessment survey was conducted with the cooperation of personnel managers at seven major area employers - a bank, a mortgage company, an insurance company, a hospital, a temporary employment service and two home health agencies. The study follows a 1994 survey of the same firms.
“Although age discrimination is denied, many older workers have been and will continue to be victims of age stereotypes,” the new study concludes. “The employers we interviewed in 1994 and again in 1998 had nothing but praise for the ethics, work habits and dependability of older workers.
“They make every effort to comply with federal and state laws regarding age discrimination. However, there is still an underlying feeling that, `You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”’
Said Yuse, “Everyone at our meeting felt this form of discrimination must be brought out in the open. It must be identified and curbed. Laws exist. They are not enforced.
“We’re going to take this up as a major goal. And one of the first things we’re going to do is try to find out if AARP lives up to it’s own goals.”
In the current issue of AARP’s Modern Maturity magazine, Horace Deets, executive director of the nation’s largest lobby, inveighs against age discrimination.
“Recent AARP research on age discrimination in employment indicates that one in four Americans 40 and older suspect that they have been subjected to age-related employment discrimination,” Deets writes. “Equal Employment Opportunity Commission records show the average age of workers filing charges of age discrimination is 53 years old.”
Yuse’s response: “I have gone to AARP’s state and regional offices in Seattle a number of times, and it seems to me there is a huge preponderance of people under 40 working there. So I wrote to Deets and told him his column was very well done, but what is the hiring policy of AARP in his own office in Washington, D.C.?
“What is AARP hiring policy in the states and the various regional offices? Do they have statistics to show that they are actually hiring older workers themselves? We’d like to have more information.
“We would also like to hear more from our area seniors,” Yuse added. “If you have experienced age discrimination in employment, we invite you to write down your experience and send it to us.”
The address is Senior Legislative Coalition, 7037 N. G Street, Spokane, WA 99208.