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Demasiado viejos a los 35 años · ELPAÍS.comToo old at 35 - ElPais.com
La discriminación por orientación sexual, género, color o discapacidad cuenta con un alto grado de concienciación social. Los expertos alertan, sin embargo, de la existencia de otro tipo de discriminación igualmente execrable, pero más invisible que los anteriores: la que atañe a la edad. En este campo, dicen, todavía no hay suficiente sensibilización. Una generación de trabajadores en sus 30 y 40 años llegó más bien tarde al mercado laboral, pero hoy se encuentran un techo temprano. Representan las contradicciones de un país con alta esperanza de vida, más necesidad de fuerza laboral que financie las pensiones del futuro y una escasa perspectiva laboral, apuntalada formalmente por convocatorias que les excluyen.There is a large degree of social awarenees about discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender, skin colour or disability. Experts are warning, however, about the existence of another kind of equally despicable discrimination: on age. In this field, they say, there is still not enough sensitivity. A generation of workers between 30 and 40 arrived into the job market relatively late, but today they meet an early ceiling. They represent the contradictions of a country with a high life expectancy, a greater need of a labour force to fund future pensions and a lack of work expectations, formally buttressed by work demands which exclude them.

The last line refers to the fact that all kinds of work offers both in the public and private sectors have age limits. The article mentions:
  • frequent job ads advising "older than 40 need not apply"
  • to join the National Police one has to be under 30
  • a 36-year old volunteer firefighter was barred from joining the corps by a 35-year age limit set by the Catalan regional government
  • a human rights lawyer has challenged in court 15 separate public employment contests covering a total of 30,000 public jobs, on the grounds of age discrimination.

I'm nearly 34 - realising that by 35 I may already be "too old".

But I am a bit shocked that the article claims there is little social awareness of this problem. I have known this since my early teenage years because of anecdotal evidence from family friends.

For more on age discrimination see the recent discussion of the diary Ok, I am pissed at Europeans by Jeffersonian Democrat on May 16th, 2009.

A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds; a man of deeds and not of words is like a garden full of turds — Anonymous

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jun 24th, 2009 at 05:28:10 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The article mentions the recent (January 2007) Eurobarometer 263 on Discrimination in the European Union [PDF - see also the summary (PDF)].

A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds; a man of deeds and not of words is like a garden full of turds — Anonymous
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jun 24th, 2009 at 05:34:01 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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