MIDDLE-AGED EMPLOYEES.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20083, 12 November 1930, Page 18

MIDDLE-AGED EMPLOYEES.

♦ — : JJWttWCAN INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM. (WMM' OOE. OWK COUSSfOXDBNT.) SAK FEE AN CISCO, October 2. One of the leading authorities on j industrial safety in the United States is Commissioner Will J. French, director of tie Caiif6rnia State Department of Industrial Relations, an official who is recognised as one of the foremost in the world as an originator of "safety first" He is a native of Auckland, Sie\r Zealand, and has had a most notable career iu ■ Western America, championing the cause of the workers. Hehas just attracted considerable public " atteutidh in ' California by 1 issuing an ultimatum to the effect that industry must-find some means of utilising the mature skill of middle-aged and elderly men, or face the costly alternative of the lowering of the age limit to which State pensions must apply. He said that elderly - workers cannot be simply dis- : carded. They represent a social and industrial problem of the utmost importance, and it had to be met properly. 3e blamed prejudicial personnel policies, business mergers, and industrial pension plans for a new attitude which sacrifices workers of advanced age, de,spite their mental and physical qualifications. - Summarising 2808 confidential reports received .from Californian employers, "Commissioner French had found that the older. Workers find curtailment of employ ment through arbitrary age limits. While only 11 per cent, of the firms reporting had fixed age limits, they hire • 39' per cent, of the men employed.. And .'although. the ; other concerns have no 'definite policy, according to their managements, investigation proves neverthe- ; less that younger ,workers are favoured. . "'fMaximum hiring age limits have a .demoralising effect not only on those are refused employment because of • their ages, but also upon other workers - eniployed'in the establishments," says 1 the bulletin issued by Commissioner "French, which adds: - "The • refusal to "hire middle-aged and older persons is all the more deplorable in view of the fact that in the latest three decades there has been a great increase in the number of such persons in the United States." '