Browsing: Older workers

A manager's belief that a 70-year-old job applicant wasn't capable of working safely in a hot environment, because of his age, was "based upon the type of assumptions" that employment laws guard against, a judge has ruled in penalising two companies for discriminating against the worker.

A study following nearly 10,000 workers for a quarter of a century has found low mental simulation in a job can have serious long-term impacts on workers' cognitive function, with links to the onset of dementia.

Employers have been urged to take special care to adapt work tasks for their older employees in physically demanding jobs, after a major European study conclusively showed these workers are far more likely to experience long-term sickness absences.

Interventions that reduce workers' musculoskeletal pain, even by small amounts, have the potential to eliminate physical limitations caused by leg pain, which is especially prevalent in older workers, a study of nearly 13,000 workers has found.

A major real-world study has confirmed the protective effect of cardiorespiratory fitness against the health risks associated with performing physical work. The researchers urge workplaces to implement fitness improvement programs or provide a more "equitable distribution" of tasks.

In a "very difficult" decision, a commission has upheld the dismissal of a worker, with more than 23 years of service, for wrongly presuming plant he was working on was tagged out and isolated.

More than a third of workers who suffer a work injury will sustain a further injury within a short period of time, according to New Zealand researchers, who say their findings reveal an "important intervention point" for preventing incidents and reducing injury rates.

An employer unlawfully discriminated against an older worker in refusing to engage him for work in a hot environment, with its manager likening the proposed labour-hire arrangement to sending "your dad or granddad" into high-risk conditions, a court has found.

Workplace policies and programs that drive home the broad safety repercussions of turning up to work with a hangover, and impaired coordination, are far more likely to reduce risky drinking behaviours than warnings on the impact of alcohol on individuals' health, a study of NSW workers suggests.

• Special coronavirus assessments advised for vulnerable workers;
  
• COVID-19 logistics safety and fatality alerts issued in Vic; and
  
• Pandemic affects work injury claims and claimants in WA.