A Sydney mother trying to re-enter the workforce is “shocked and offended” after a prospective employer declined to hire her due to her age.
Maria Nielson applied for a job at a barbershop and made it through to interview stage when she was told the staff member whose job was being advertised had decided to stay on.
When the 37-year-old saw the shop advertising another role a few months later, she decided to try again.
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Nielson texted the male employer to let him know she was interested in applying for the role — but the reply stunned her.
“I’m sorry but honestly, I don’t want to be rude but, with all my respect, as I have a lot of young clients I’m looking for someone a bit younger to work with me,” he wrote.
“Hope you don’t get offended. Thanks again.”
Nielson said she was thrown by the response and initially laughed.
“I never imagined I would get a message like that, so I guess I was shocked and that’s what made me laugh,” she told 7NEWS.com.au.
“I showed my husband and he was like, ‘Wow, that’s very offensive’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, it is’.
“Afterwards, it’s just made me feel like I need to think a bit more about my future and what options I have.”
Age discrimination
Rejecting someone because of their age is considered age discrimination and is illegal, similar to knocking back a candidate because of their race, religion or gender.
Exceptions can apply when a candidate cannot perform the “inherent requirements” of the position, such as being too young to hold a driver’s licence for a courier job.
Macpherson Kelley principal lawyer for employment, safety and migration John-Anthony Hodgens said he was surprised some employers were not aware of the rules.
“The short point is, this stuff is not rocket science,” he told 7NEWS.com.au.
“There’s a prohibition, both in the federal age discrimination legislation and it’s reflected in each of the relevant state jurisdictions, that you can’t discriminate against people as a general on the basis of age.”
While Nielson chose to just shrug off the comment, applicants can take further action.
Hodgens said a common challenge was being able to prove the decision based on a consideration of age — but with a text message stating as such, Nielson had a “smoking gun”.
“You have rights to pursue remedies in the form of compensation through either the Australian Human Rights Commission process or through the various state bodies,” he explained.
“The range of compensation is and has steadily, over the last five years in particular, begun to increase.
“We can see an increased willingness on the behalf of courts to increase compensation with a view to sending a message of deterrence to prevent people from engaging in this sort of behaviour.”
He added there was potential for orders of $30,000 in general damages.
His warning for employers was: “Be conscious of recruiting practices and procedures.”
