EEO shorts
Nurse scarcityAustralia poaches many New Zealand trained nurses just as overseas trained nurses make up an increasing and valued proportion of nurses in New Zealand. But research across the Tasman shows that nurses are an endangered species. Between 1999 and 2005 nurses over the age of 55 years increased from 11 to 20 per cent in Australia. With 14 per cent of the nurse workforce retiring every five years; and only 70 per cent of people qualified as nurses actually working as nurses the research shows an unsustainable picture for the Australian nursing workforce.
Climbing rates of older workers for UK giant
Giant British supermarket chain Tesco has a soaring number of older workers. The British retailer which is the UK’s largest private sector employer now employs 55,000 people over the age of 50 years. This amounts to a 154% rise in ten years and means one in five of its staff is a mature worker. Tesco explains the mature worker growth by ageing of existing staff, appointment of new older workers and by age-friendly policies.
Helping arthritis sufferers stay at work
Employers have little awareness of arthritis, according to new British research that promotes better legislative compliance and minor adjustments by employers for employees.
Arthritis care, a patient support organization, states that arthritis is the UK’s biggest cause of physical disability. It results in costly but avoidable arthritis-related unemployment and that better understanding and greater flexibility arthritis sufferers could be retained in paid employment or helped to return to work.