Gold collar workers: golden or impoverished futures?

Abstract

Long neglected in policy and public consciousness, mature aged-workers have come to prominence in many advanced capitalist countries as governments and researchers identify the 'ageing of the population' as a key social problem for the future. One immediate response has been to construct the problem as one of the systematic discrimination of mature-aged workers in the labour market. Government policy now aims to address the expected shortfall of workers in national labour markets by encouraging mature-aged workers to stay in the labour market. However, with a Senate majority as of 1 July 2005, the government is clearly much more interested in radical deregulation of the labour market. This further deregulation of the labour market is likely to increase financial hardship among the population, one in which mature-aged workers are particularly vulnerable. This paper focuses on this emergent debate, especially in the Australian context, and criticises the government's renewed and vigorous pursuit of labour market deregulation. Finally the paper outlines a number of measured regulatory approaches in particular 'risk pooling' which includes the provision of portability of entitlements for workers.