Ms Mary Murphy:

Two points occur to me. First, there is a great deal of misapprehension about older workers. There is an assumption that a decline in capacity is inevitable and that there are too many burdens associated with having an older worker to outweigh the benefits that accrue. Employers need to be educated about how that assumption is not borne out in the research and that older workers have much to offer. The research says that, in terms of ability, capacity and health status, two 66-year-olds are as likely to be as different from each other as a 66-year-old and a 35-year-old are. There is too much diversity to have a one-size-fits-all policy. Getting that point across to employers is important.

Second, firing someone is unpleasant. Employers do not want to have to do that with their workers of any age. There is an assumption that, if a person is going to lose his or her ability, the employer will eventually have to sit the worker down and say that he or she has to be let go because he or she is not performing. If the employer has worked with that person for 20 years and knows his or her family, the employer does not want to do that, but a mandatory requirement clause makes it much easier. The employer can say it is nothing personal and has nothing to do with their relationship, but it is just what is in the contract. In response to that assumption, we would say that older persons are as entitled to normal managerial processes as any other workers. Employment law is not supposed to protect employers from difficult conversations. We cannot have a paternalistic model in which employers are able to unilaterally make decisions about what is easier or best for older workers. If there is a decline in capacity and roles need to be discussed and supports need to be put in place, older workers should be talked to about that just as a 42-year-old who is going through the same would be.

The idea of corporate memory was raised. We need intergenerational teams and mentorship. We need older persons to be involved with colleagues of different ages in the workplace to undo many of the stereotypes and so that older workers can benefit by being able to develop continuously through access to training, etc.