A former Canberra journalist has accused the United Nations of discriminating against job applicants because of their age after she was told she was too old to apply for a position with UNESCO.
Sixty-six-year-old Lyn Drummond applied for a communications role with the UN'S education, scientific and cultural organisation last year, but was told she was ineligible because the UN had a cut-off age for job applicants of 57. The reason for this, according to the UNESCO Secretariat at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, is that the UN has a retirement age of 62 and employees have to work a minimum of five years to qualify for a UN pension.
Ms Drummond, who is a former foreign diplomat and has worked for media organisations in Canberra, Sydney, Western Australia and overseas, now claims the UN is actively promoting ageism and has taken her complaint to Age Discrimination Commissioner Susan Ryan and Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd.
Ms Drummond applied for the UNESCO job shortly after completing her Masters in International Relations last year and said she had no intention of stopping work. She said age should be irrelevant if applicants had the right skills for the job and that the UN, in particular, should be embracing older people who wanted to keep working.
''The UN is supposed to be the universal agency representing anti-discrimination, but it is blatantly practising ageism by specifying an age a person has to be to work,'' she said.
''It's just a number.
''Life is about the right to work until you die and no one should be judging you on that.''
Ms Drummond said it made no sense for governments, including Australia's, to be espousing the benefits longer working lives if employers were setting age limits.
Age Discrimination Commissioner Susan Ryan has contacted Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd's office to ask if there is any action the Australian government can take in Ms Drummond's case.
In a letter, Ms Ryan said: ''The major United Nations human rights conventions have been interpreted to apply to discrimination on the basis of age.
''UN agencies are supporting moves towards a convention on the rights of older people.
''In this climate of reform, it is disappointing that the United Nations maintains a compulsory retirement age and does not accept applications from people over the age of 57,'' it said.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it had raised the matter with UNESCO ''and will continue to pursue concerns that the agency is discriminating on age''.
''As an international organisation, however, the UN is entitled to determine its own employment policies and practices and there is little recourse for member states,'' she said.
.gif)
