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Equality, Diversity and Disadvantage in Employment pp 65–79Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Age and Carer Discrimination in the Recruitment Process: Has the Australian Legislation Failed?

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Abstract

The importance of equal opportunity and workforce diversity has been advocated for many years both for economic and social reasons. With the imminent aging of the workforce, and the increasing numbers of people with carer responsibilities who need or wish to work, the understanding, detection and subsequent removal of discrimination in employment is of critical importance to an egalitarian society. Despite the fact that discrimination may occur at many points in the employment process, most of the research has focused on the interview stage (Barber et al., 1994). Given that employers regard age as a significant factor in the recruitment phase (Arrowsmith and McGoldrick, 1996), this chapter will examine discrimination on the basis of age as well as carer status in the recruitment process. It will conclude by questioning whether the anti-discrimination legislation in Austrialia has failed.

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Authors
  1. Lynne Bennington
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Leicester Business School, De Montfort University, UK

    Mike Noon (Professor of Human Resource Management) (Professor of Human Resource Management)

  2. Cardiff Business School, UK

    Emmanuel Ogbonna (Senior Lecturer, Director Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration) (Senior Lecturer, Director Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration)

Copyright information

© 2001 Lynne Bennington

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Cite this chapter

Bennington, L. (2001). Age and Carer Discrimination in the Recruitment Process: Has the Australian Legislation Failed?. In: Noon, M., Ogbonna, E. (eds) Equality, Diversity and Disadvantage in Employment. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333977880_5

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