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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-05-17 Daily Xml
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Parliamentary Committee on Occupational Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation: 67 is the new 40

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (16:08): I move:

That the report of the committee, on its inquiry into work health and safety and workers compensation issues associated with people working longer, be noted.

The Occupational Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Committee has had an ongoing interest in issues associated with an ageing workforce. The committee provided a briefing report to this council in March 2013, following a meeting with the then commissioner for ageing and disability, the Hon. Susan Ryan.

Since then, there has been significant interest in the community on finding ways to assist older people to continue in the workforce for longer. Eligibility for the aged pension is increasing over the next few decades, with the expectation that people will continue in the workforce until they are at least 70 years of age. Sixty-seven is the new 40. We are all getting older and we are all getting better at the same time.

The committee's inquiry examined a number of areas affecting older South Australian workers, including workforce participation and barriers to employment; access to workers compensation and insurance; superannuation and early retirement; healthy ageing; support, education and training; and re-entry into the workforce following an early retirement, redundancy or for some other reason.

The committee received a small number of submissions, heard evidence from the Council of the Ageing and undertook research on emerging issues associated with an ageing workforce. Macroeconomic factors that affect employment, savings and investment are affecting decisions that individuals make about their future. Technological change is disrupting every area of life, reshaping the way that many businesses operate and affecting the labour market. The shortage of young skilled workers to replace retiring older workers is one reason to encourage older workers to remain in the workforce.

The Bureau of Statistics considers anyone over the age of 45 to be a mature age person. The proportion of people aged over 65 is increasing and is expected to double by 2025. South Australia's population has more mature age people than the nation as a whole, which presents us with both challenges and opportunities. While there is no longer a compulsory retirement age, many people choose to retire when they become eligible for the age pension, but, for a variety of reasons, more people are deciding to work for longer.

Nationally, people aged over 55 make up about one-quarter of the population but only 16 per cent of the workforce. A report into the workforce participation rate of workers aged over 55 compared to 34 other OECD countries found that while New Zealand ranked second behind Iceland, Australia achieved the midway point—a lowly 16th. In 2013, the Economic and Finance Committee found the workforce participation rate of people over 55 in South Australia was below the national average.

Many women in older age groups are now working more than in previous generations, but the male workforce participation rate has been declining. This is largely due to the technological change that impact on many traditionally male occupations. The Australian Human Rights Commission and COTA SA found the main barriers to workforce participation for older people included things such as discrimination due to underlying assumptions and stereotypes associated with ageing; lack of workforce flexibility; lack of retraining and upskilling opportunities; or physical injury and illness.

Good work is beneficial for physical and mental health but unsafe, unhealthy work reduces the prospect of healthy ageing and places increasing pressure on public health and social services. We are all living longer, but white-collar workers have a longer life expectancy than blue-collar workers because their jobs involve more risks to health and safety. Due to the nature of work undertaken by many blue-collar workers, they are more likely to suffer serious physical injury and illness. Lower levels of education reduce their opportunity to move into other areas of employment and successfully continue retraining.

Physical and emotional demands of workers in aged care and many health-related fields adversely affect the ability of those workers to work longer. There is an increasing need for employers to prevent work-related injuries and reduce the risks of ageing associated with the work processes by redesigning work and work practices, ensuring healthy work environments and providing training and opportunities for promoting health-related programs.

Most employers are aware of the importance of maintaining a healthy workforce but may have limited knowledge of what they can do. Lack of flexible work arrangements may prevent workers from investing in their own health and wellbeing, and they may not be aware what actions they can take. Workers who retire prematurely or lose their job risk the double jeopardy of having insufficient funds for their retirement and not being able to find other suitable employment.

White-collar workers are likely to live longer and usually have access to healthy work environments and flexible work arrangements and are able to transition to retirement by reducing their hours of work or the number of days they work. However, flexible work arrangements are not available for everyone, because the South Australian Fair Work Act does not provide similar provisions to the commonwealth legislation in enabling people to make an application to their employer.

Flexible work arrangements are important for all workers. Flexible work arrangements benefit young workers who have family responsibilities and older workers who are diverse in their needs and interests. Some feel that now they are free of family responsibilities they can concentrate on career, while others have caring responsibilities for elderly parents or grandchildren. Many want to continue to work to enhance their financial circumstances and provide for a better retirement. Some want to combine working with volunteering, which is worth around $5 billion annually to the state's economy.

Flexible work arrangements, combined with transition to retirement, allows older workers to combine working with being actively engaged with other interests, activities and family responsibilities. Many large employers embrace a multigenerational workforce and support older workers to transition to retirement. Many small employers would like to do the same. Flexible work arrangements will benefit all workers. For this reason, the committee recommends that the South Australian Fair Work Act be amended to reflect flexible working arrangements as laid out in the commonwealth legislation.

The committee found that there is a wide range of information available to assist older workers, but it is scattered. It is not easy for older people to locate information that supports their interests or wellbeing and the economic opportunities that may be available to them. For this reason the committee recommends that the Minister for Ageing develop a whole-of-government internet gateway to address this gap.

The committee recognises the limitations of this particular inquiry and considers this an ongoing matter for the committee to monitor. The committee prides itself on making practical recommendations. Overall, four recommendations have been made to address identified policy gaps that will assist both employers and older workers.

Macroeconomic factors beyond the control of any one individual are affecting the labour market, and technology is changing the way business is conducted and operates. Organisations that embrace a multigenerational workforce and acknowledge the different contributions of all workers will benefit from these economic and technological changes.

In closing, I would like to thank the Hon. Susan Ryan for her attendance at the committee and for ReturnToWorkSA's assistance in providing statistical and research reports that assisted the committee in its deliberations. I would like to thank all those who made submissions to the committee and COTA SA for their substantial submissions and for giving of their time to appear before the committee.

As a new member of this hardworking committee, I would like to thank the presiding member, the Hon. Steph Key, whose commitment to this important area of interest is, of course, well known. I would also like to thank the member for Fisher and the member for Schubert. I would also like to thank the Hon. Gerry Kandelaars, who recently retired, the Hon. John Dawkins and the Hon. John Darley for their contributions. I would also express my appreciation to the committee staff, including the executive officer, Ms Sue Sedivy, and the research officer, Mr Peter Knapp.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (16:18): I am pleased to rise to endorse the remarks of the Hon. Mr Hanson. I think this is the first committee report—certainly of this committee—that he has brought to the chamber, and, as a relatively new member of the committee, he has already taken up some of the cudgels previously employed by the Hon. Mr Kandelaars.

The committee is a very interesting committee, which I think has done some pretty significant work in the last several years that I have been on it. Obviously, a fair bit of that work has been in the area of mental health and suicide prevention, but certainly the work we are currently doing in relation to return to work is around the psychological area.

I think very much in relation to issues around people working longer, are the psychological aspects of that. I think everybody has a judgement on other people's retirement age. If someone chooses to retire early, lots of people, probably including myself, have made judgements, 'Oh well, make sure you keep yourself busy,' and there will inevitably be people who will say, 'Oh, why do you want to keep working at your age?'

It is a personal choice, but the reality is that community pressures have always been placed on people for their decisions about whether they want to continue to work. Sometimes it may be that they need to continue to work for financial reasons, but it is also relevant to know that some people will quite proudly want to retire early and stay retired, and if they can do that and that is their wish then they should be able to do so.

The committee made some recommendations, to which the Hon. Mr Hanson has referred in his remarks. I will quickly highlight them. The committee recommended that the Minister for Health market the Healthy Workers—Healthy Futures initiative to assist employers to provide healthy workplaces for older workers. I would reiterate the fact that healthy workplaces obviously need to be places that are mentally healthy and that do care for the wellbeing of those workers.

The committee also recommended that the Fair Work Act 1994 be updated to include provision for employees to request flexible work arrangements so that it is consistent with the Fair Work Act 2009 of the commonwealth. The Hon. Mr Hanson referred to that. The committee also recommended that the Minister for Higher Education and Skills brief the committee on what grant funding and programs are available to assist older workers who wish to retrain and/or re-enter the workforce, and how the information is communicated to older workers.

The committee also found that, while a wide range of information is available for older workers, there is not one central point where older people can obtain information to assist them if they want to continue to work or return to the workforce after having left it either voluntarily or otherwise. So, the committee recommended that the Minister for Ageing develop a whole-of-government internet gateway containing information resources and advice to assist older people to engage with the labour market and to work longer.

I will not delay the council any longer. I commend this report. I have never been a great fan of titles on reports, but I think, as I explained to some people at lunchtime, the use of the title '67 is the new 40' is a very useful way of describing what is otherwise mentioned as 'An inquiry into work health and safety and workers compensation issues associated with people working longer'. I think the short, brief title is a very good one.

I also commend the work of the committee, which is enhanced very much by the leadership of the presiding member, the Hon. Steph Key, whose passion in this area is well known. Obviously, we also have the valuable contributions from the members for Schubert and Fisher in another place. The Hon. John Darley and the Hon. Mr Hanson, as I mentioned earlier, contributed very much to this inquiry, but also to the ongoing work of what is a busy committee.

In closing, I thank the executive officer, Ms Sue Sedivy, for her ongoing work. I think we are delighted that she now, very deservedly, has an additional member of the team on board, the research officer Mr Peter Knapp, and we look forward to continuing the ongoing work of the committee into matters relating to occupational safety, rehabilitation and compensation.

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY (16:25): In rising to support this report, I realise that I am the exception to the rule and I am lucky enough to still be working, despite having turned 80 on Monday. People often ask me why I am still working. My response is always, 'Why not?' I enjoy what I do and I am fortunate enough to be in a position which supports me so that I can continue to work effectively. However, this is often not the case with other workplaces.

The global financial crisis resulted in some people being unable to retire, or worse, being forced to return to work after retirement due to a lack of return on investments. Jobless workers over 55 are often unemployed for long periods, either due to the stigma of being older or because they had entered retirement. Long periods of unemployment is often unattractive to employers, yet without older workers in the workplace the burden on the social services can be higher. Workplaces need to be flexible to accommodate older workers. Older workers are often stereotyped to be mentally slower, less creative and less productive, which employers believe will only cost them time, resources and, ultimately, money.

However, this is far from the truth, as older workers are often creative as they have learnt to resolve problems without modern technology. They have priceless life experience and are generally more loyal to employers than younger counterparts. Whilst older workers may need a little more support at the beginning, many employers will find that the trade-off is well worth it. Undoubtedly, as the population continues to age, this will continue to be an issue which will need attention as time goes by.

I want to thank the committee members and staff, Ms Sue Sedivy and Peter Knapp, for their work on this matter. I commend the report to honourable members.

Motion carried.

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