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Show salt lake WESTERN mERJCm free neighborhood news volume two Get-Toug- number march 22, 1973 twenty-nin- e Policy on Age h Discrimination Needed by Bernard E. Nash, Executive Director, American Association of Retired Persons Passage of major civil rights legislation in the 1960s and the emergence of the "women's lib" issue in the 1970s represented long-overdu- e recognition by this nation of the evils of discrimination based upon race, religion and sex. Still to be eradicated from our society is the equally unfair and harmful practice of age discrimination. Nowhere is this insidious form of discrimination more injurious to individuals and to our nation as a whole than in the short- - sighted, arbitrary concept of forced retirement. Throughout our nation today, thousands of able, qualified, healthy and dedicated men and women are denied the freedom to choose their own lifestyle by mandatory retirement provisions based A study conducted by the Social Security solely upon age. Administration indicates, for example, that more than 60 percent of those retired workers who filed for Social Security benefits during the last six months of 1 968 (the most recent period analyzed) did not want to retire and that compulsory retirement was a major reason for their leaving their last job. This policy of coerced retirement stems from the mistaken belief by management that productivity can somehow be measured in terms of age. A recent report by the New York state commissioner on human rights belies this: a survey of more than 100,000 state employees indicated that workers over the age of 65 performed their jobs "about equal to and sometimes noticeably better than younger workers." Yet many employers still insist on enforcing a mandatory, arbitrary retirement age provision, in order to escape, perhaps, the more difficult responsibility for more equitable, e personnel decisions. case-by-cas- Support for mandatory retirement also comes from the mistaken "depression of many labor belief that older organizations workers must be forced to retire in order to "make room" in the psychology so that all who are able and willing to work may have the opportunity to do so is a more creative response to the issue, enabling our nation to utilize the wisdom, experience and productivity of some of its most capable citizens while providing them the sense of purpose, dignity and fulfillment that comes from mean ingful work . Our Association continue to oppose of will te inclusion mandatory retirement provisions in any employment agreement or contract. And we will urge the Congress and the Department of Labor to expand and enforce more vigorously the provisisions of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. Only in this way will all Americans someday enjoy the full benefits of citizenship regardless of race, religion and sex and regardless of age. - labor market for younger Compulsory retirement means long lonely days. workers. To believe this, however, is to admit that our society cannot effectively utilize the talents, skills and abilities of an increasingly large number of citizens who must, consequently, be relegated to a position of dependency - an ever increasing burden to those remaining in the labor force. At a time when vital services in such areas as day care, health care recreation and -- education are unperformed of lack of manpower, thousands of older workers are being forced out of the labor market because of lack of jobs. Stimulation of the economy because |