Examples Of Age Discrimination At Work

The least recognised examples of age discrimination at work are the ones affecting younger workers. They are protected in exactly the same terms as against older workers.

What it looks like: being excluded from decisions about your own work because you are assumed not to have the judgement. Having ideas attributed to whoever repeated them. Being given the tasks nobody wants on the basis of seniority rather than role. Being told to wait your turn for development. Assumptions about loyalty, that a younger worker will leave anyway, so investment goes elsewhere.

It is under-reported for understandable reasons. Younger workers often have less job security, less workplace experience to calibrate against, and no obvious sense that what they are experiencing has a name.

Research from the Australian HR Institute and the Commission found only 41% of employers were open to recruiting jobseekers aged 15 to 24 to a large extent. The Australian Human Rights Commission covers age discrimination in employment. This is general information rather than legal advice.

See Sentrient’s equal employment opportunity course and code of conduct training.