In some countries, it is illegal for employers to reject the people are applying for job because of his/her age Do you think it is a positive or negative development?

In some countries, it is illegal for employers to reject the people are applying for job because of his/her age
Do you think it is a positive or negative development? 

 

Favorable 

• Now the elderly, or young people do not have to struggle to earn a livelihood and support their life

• Where senior citizens will not face mental hardships, the young will not have to take to crime 

• The aged will not feel abandoned, and the young will be able to gain requisite experience and a chance to develop their skills 

Detrimental 

• Companies will be forced to select even those who are unfit or less skilled for a specific job 

• Create unemployment among more talented people and deprive society of chances to harness the real talent 

• This might organizations financially as the overaged people might require extensive medical support, while inexperienced young people might cause accidents and damage to equipment

Discriminating and rejecting applicants for employment on the basis their age has been declared as unlawful in many countries. This is fiercely and profoundly debated between the critics and advocates who consider it to be counter-productive and constructive respectively though I consider it to be favorable, depending on the conditions.

Undoubtedly, this decision will prove to beneficial in the long-run: it will save many, especially the most vulnerable group of senior citizens, the frequent victims of such discrimination, from plummeting into financial crisis. Elderly are always exposed to acute scarcity of financial resources, and most do not have anyone else to lean on, so they seek livelihood to cope with their everyday expenses. In such as case,  if they face rejection, they will not only suffer financially but also mentally.

Moreover, this could also help society derive several direct and indirect benefits. This will surely bring down public expenditure and keep tax-hikes at bay: the governments will not need to render unemployment support and pensions to help those jobless, having been turned down due to their age; and the tax-payers will also be not burdened with extra taxes – needed to support such people. 

However, this policy has a darker side too. Hiring workers is the purview of businesses: they select or refuse applications on the basis of their job-specific requirements – that may involve considering, hazards, stress, intensity and hard-work associated with the work; and being deprived this privilege will put operations of companies at risk and also raise their expenditure; thus making their functioning unprofitable leading to closure in extreme cases – generating unemployment.

In hindsight, the policy of making filtering job aspirants on the basis of age legally unacceptable is even though a positive evolution, it must be applied prudently and discreetly to harness appropriate outcomes.