HUYEN TAY ENGLISH CENTER

TOPIC DISCUSSIONS FOR COMMUNICATION CLASS

Age Discrimination

Video discussion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR-ph2FBWM4

Reading Discussion

Should age discrimination be made illegal in the workplace?

Age discrimination occurs when a decision is made on the basis of a person’s age. In the
workplace these are most often decisions about recruitment, promotion and dismissal. Although
such discrimination could be seen in the reluctance to hire workers who were perceived to be
too young and immature for the job, in practice it refers to a bias against older workers. In
societies that celebrates youthfulness above almost all else, it can be very difficult for even
highly qualified professionals to find new positions after the age of 50. For most older workers
there appears little they can do to resist being swept aside in favour of younger replacements.
European Union states have recently had to introduce an anti-age discrimination law, which
makes it unlawful to discriminate against employees and job seekers because of their age. But
around the world the issue remains a controversial one, both in general and in particular over
the practice of setting mandatory retirement ages.

Vocabulary
 discrimination - treating one person or group differently from another in an unfair way.
Discrimination against muslims are perceptible nowadays.
 pension - money paid by the government or company to a person after retirement
My grandma has been receiving her pension since 2013.
 retirement - when you stop working, usually because of your age
She plans to go to Hawaii after her retirement.
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 elderly - used as a polite way of saying that someone is old or becoming old
The elderly just got an accident.
 suitability - the degree to which something or someone has the right qualities for a
particular purpose
The suitability of in a certain position is measured by his/her skills and experience.
 vitality - great energy and eagerness to do things
The vitality of a person is diminishing as he/she grows old.
 recruit - to find new people to work in a company, join an organization, do a job etc
I’ve been recruiting members of a fitness program for the past 5 years.
 mandatory - if something is mandatory, the law says it must be done
There is a mandatory health check-up in all employees of this company
 ageism - unfair treatment of people because they are old
There are more concerns in unemployment rather than ageism in my country.

Discussion Exercises
Give your ideas about the Pros and Cons of Ageism.

PROS CONS

The elderly may be just as capable as the
young.Since age is not necessarily an
indication of inferior ability or potential, treating
a person less favourably purely on the basis of
their age is just as unreasonable and unfair as
doing so on the basis of his race or religion. If
a particular elderly worker truly has, say, less
concentration or manual strength than a
younger worker, and this objectively and
reasonably makes him less qualified for the
particular job, then employers can still make
their decisions based on his relative lack of
suitability for the job – not on his age. Age by
itself should not be a determinant. 
Discriminatory practices in recruitment and
promotion cause detriment to the
economy.Age discrimination reduces
productivity because job and advancement
opportunities are inefficiently matched to
workers and talent is wasted. Higher
participation rates among older workers lead
to better matching of jobs to people, increased
employment rates, and enhanced competition
among workers that will stimulate the labour
market in the longer run. 
Having few older workers also increases
the amount the government needs to
spend on unemployment and other
benefits, and decreases tax revenues. This
In theory hiring should be based on ability.
In reality certain abilities may be hard to truly
test so employers use age as a proxy for them –
in the same way that they use sports as an
indication of one’s ‘ability to work in a team’.
age is often an indicator of qualities such as
concentration, memory, energy, and so on.
These qualities may be important: a fashion
designer may justifiably want his salespersons
to have a certain level of energy and vitality; it is
crucial that air traffic controllers and surgeons
have very high levels of fitness and
concentration.
 
Laws against age discrimination may merely
lead to old people working more, instead of
more old people working.Research on age
discrimination laws in the U.S. shows that the
‘increase in employment rates’ of older workers
are due mostly to them staying on in jobs for
longer, rather than an increase in rates of hiring
among older workers. 
Many of the purported ‘benefits’ for the
government budget in fact involve nothing
more than ‘pure transfers’: the government
spends less on health and other benefits – but
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strain on public resources is
increasingly critical in many
developed countries given their ageing
populations, the projected increases in the
dependency ratio, and the pay-as-you go
nature of state pension schemes. 
Without age discrimination and a
mandatory retirement age, employers
benefit from lower turnover and thus lower
recruitment costs and effort, because
workers stay on at work longer than they
would otherwise have done. The DTI
estimates that this benefit to businesses will
amount to £39m in the first year alone.
By contrast, discrimination discourages
potentially talented job seekers from applying.
Right from the recruitment stage, employers
lose by having a smaller pool of workers to
draw upon, and by failing to make the most of
the existing skills potential of the population. 
Ageism is the most prevalent form of
discrimination in the workforce
today.Legislation can help to change these
prejudiced attitudes if it operates in
conjunction with other policies to promote
equal rights and educate employers and
workers about their obligations and rights. By
protecting a group in society that is often left
out and less advantaged, we are also raising
the level of equality in society.  retirement ages.
only because the employer is now paying for
them. The cost and the resource strain do not
disappear – it is simply transferred from the
government to the employers. 
Without a mandatory retirement age,
employers are suddenly obliged to continue
paying into people’s pensions much longer
than they expected to, and to put up with other
significant increases in costs such as higher
insurance premiums, more expensive
healthcare benefit plans, and so on.
Furthermore, at any firm there are always a
limited number of senior jobs. If these are taken
up by older workers staying on indefinitely, firms
may find it hard to recruit, motivate and retain
younger workers looking to replace them,
leading to high turnover among younger staff. 
In Australia, Canada and the US, where anti-
discrimination laws have long been in place,
there is no clear evidence so far of any
significant shift in the attitude of employers
and society to older workers. In fact, there is
some evidence that employers may be less
likely to hire older workers, and younger co-
workers may be more resentful, because
employers are not allowed to set mandatory
 

Conversation Questions
 What is discrimination?
 What kind of discrimination exists in your country?
 Do you ever have thoughts that are discriminatory?
 Which countries around the world have shocking levels of discrimination?
 Are there strong laws in your country to prevent discrimination?
 What kind of sexual discrimination exists in your country?
 What do you do when you see discrimination?
 Does ageism exist in your country?
 Do you think there is religious discrimination in the war on terror?
 Is there a class or caste system in your country?
 Have you ever been discriminated against?
 Have you ever discriminated against people?
 What is the worst kind of discrimination?
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 Do you think discrimination in the world will ever disappear?

 Is there discrimination in your school / company?
 How do people who are discriminated against react in your country?
 Are people in your country discriminated against due to the way they talk?
 Where does discrimination come from?
 Are you someone who holds zero discriminatory beliefs and attitudes?