A national inquiry has heard that society’s obsession with youth and looks is driving down the age when bosses consider employees to be past their use-by date.
Official complaints to federal and state advocates about age discrimination start well before retirement age, with Queenslanders complaining that they are being sacked and passed over for work from their 40th birthday.
Cases include an employee in the 45-54 age bracket who was told they were too old to use the stairs at work and fired for safety reasons.
Another was made redundant because the company needed “fresh faces”.