Why is the employment age ceiling getting lower and lower from the age of 35 to 24?
■ A few days ago, a fresh graduate from Heyuan, Guangdong reported that he signed a "tripartite agreement" with China Unicom Heyuan Branch through recruiting last autumn, and was recently informed that he needed to terminate the contract because he was over 24 years old.
On May 27, Guangdong Unicom and Heyuan Unicom apologized for "the fresh graduate's contract was terminated by the Heyuan branch due to age issues".
Guangdong Unicom said it would seriously reflect on and improve its recruitment.
Heyuan Unicom said that it has communicated and eliminated misunderstandings on the evening of May 26, and relevant students can go through the entry procedures as scheduled according to the agreement.
■ Although, the incident was resolved under the attention of the media and netizens.
However, the employment threshold of 24-year-old fresh graduates still stirs the public's nerves.
Some netizens pointed out that from the 35-year-old employment threshold to the 24-year-old fresh graduate employment threshold, the time for young people to freely choose a career is getting shorter and shorter.
Older graduates face the employment ceiling upon graduation.
Some netizens also said that this is creating age anxiety and exacerbating the "involution" of young people.
A survey showed:
Employment Age Discrimination Over Sex Discrimination
In a study, Zhang Bo, associate professor of Hunan Women's College, conducted a study on 12 universities in Hunan Province, including Changsha, Zhuzhou, Xiangtan, Changde, Shaoyang, Chenzhou, Loudi, etc., from March to May 2019. The prefectures and municipalities conducted a survey on the age requirements for job postings.
The results show that the status quo of employment age discrimination exceeds gender discrimination. Most enterprises and positions do not have special requirements for gender, but they do have strict age requirements.
Most employment age discrimination is stipulated under the age of 35, but according to the survey, the existing job age requirements are varied, and only a few can be relaxed to 50 years old.
Although there is a certain relationship between the age requirement and the position, it is obvious from the survey data that the existing enterprises have a lot of arbitrary age requirements and strong subjective will, and their requirements are not very reasonable.
From a regional perspective, the proportion of age discrimination in Chang-Zhu-Tan region is significantly higher than that in other cities in Hunan Province.
A total of 6,367 job postings were investigated in Chang-Zhu-Tan area, of which 911 were age-discriminatory, accounting for 14.3%.
In Yueyang, Zhangjiajie, Loudi, and Xiangxi, a total of 6,007 surveys were surveyed, of which 503 had age discrimination, accounting for 8.4%.
Among them, the age requirements for most positions in Zhangjiajie and Xiangxi have been relaxed to 40 or even 50 years old.
From this, it can be seen that differences in regional economic development and talent supply have increased space for age discrimination.
The reporter looked through a large number of recruitment announcements from last year to this year and found that in the recruitment of civil servants, the age is usually set at 18 to 35 years old, and for fresh doctoral students, the age will be relaxed to 40 years old.
For research and teaching positions in universities and scientific research institutions, the age of fresh graduate students is generally set to be under 35 years old.
Set the age threshold:
In fact, it is to quickly screen talents
A person in charge of human resources management in a state-owned enterprise and Internet company in Henan told reporters that the local state-owned enterprise and Internet company where he worked did not set an age threshold when recruiting new students.
Rather, it is based on the actual situation and examines the personal qualities of the candidates.
Although Internet companies are more in need of young people, they will not set an age threshold. Generally speaking, fresh graduates around the age of 26 are acceptable.
The above-mentioned person in charge also told reporters that in social recruitment, general operational positions have very low age requirements, because work does not require a lot of experience.
For positions or management positions that require experience accumulation, the upper age limit will be relaxed.
Expert positions do not have specific requirements for age, but more emphasis on professionalism, industry reputation, and added value that can be brought to the enterprise.
Why do some positions have an age threshold?
A practitioner who has been engaged in human resource management for a long time told reporters that setting the age threshold in the recruitment notice is actually a quick screening mechanism. In order to pursue maximum benefits, they tend to set the post age within a certain range.
Indicating the age directly in the recruitment notice is conducive to screening the most suitable candidates, thereby avoiding the inefficiency caused by case screening.
But this approach is generally for low-tech positions.
For key positions, a substantive examination of each candidate is generally conducted, and there is no one-size-fits-all age.
In addition, in response to age discrimination in the recruitment of colleges and research institutions, Li Jianwei, executive vice president of the Employment Promotion Association of Henan University and Technical College Graduates, introduced that colleges and universities generally tend to cultivate talents for a long time and become academic leaders or college leaders. to set the age threshold at 35 or 40.
That's going to keep some good Ph.Ds out.
Does it constitute employment discrimination?
Lawyer's statement: Enterprise's restriction on employment age violates relevant laws and regulations
So, does this restriction on the age of recruitment constitute employment discrimination?
Is there a solution for job seekers experiencing age discrimination?
Lin Zhida, a lawyer at Beijing Dawen Law Firm, believes that if an enterprise has no legal purpose and reason, but is based on race, color, religion, political opinion, ethnicity, social origin, learning style, gender, household registration, disability or physical health , age, height, language and other reasons, taking measures that violate the right to equality, such as differential treatment and exclusion, infringe upon the rights and interests of workers, which constitutes employment discrimination.
Lin Zhida also stated that Article 12 of the "Labor Law" stipulates: "Workers shall not be discriminated against in employment because of their ethnicity, race, gender, or religious belief." Article 26 of the "Labor Promotion Law" stipulates: "The employing unit Recruiting personnel and career intermediary agencies engaged in career intermediary activities shall provide workers with equal employment opportunities and fair employment conditions, and shall not implement employment discrimination.” The restriction on employment age by enterprises violates the above provisions.
Lin Zhida believes that the restriction on employment age by enterprises is mainly due to the consideration of improving work efficiency and reducing the cost of human resources.
However, such drawbacks are numerous and serious.
This is discrimination against human beings and damages human dignity.
Such an operation will exacerbate social injustice and is not conducive to dealing with the severe employment situation and changes in the demographic structure in the future.
For these enterprises, the opportunity to recruit some outstanding talents is also lost.
How does age discrimination break down?
Expert advice: Employers do not do one-size-fits-all, and the state should improve policies and regulations
Li Jianwei suggested that, on the one hand, employers should change their thinking, not to cut across the board on the issue of age, but to focus on the overall quality of talents.
At the same time, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other departments should issue relevant policies to restrict the age discrimination of recruiters by enterprises.
Lin Zhida's suggestion is to strictly regulate the recruitment behavior of employers to avoid the occurrence of age discrimination.
Relevant laws should clearly include age discrimination in the scope of employment discrimination, and there should be clear clauses prohibiting age discrimination.
Legal responsibilities and remedies for age discrimination should be clearly defined.
It is necessary to distinguish the different responsibilities of different types of employers, including both administrative and civil responsibilities.
When the laborer pursues the civil liability of the employer, the law should clarify whether the employment discrimination is a labor dispute or a tort liability dispute.
The law should clarify the form and scope of liability for such civil liability.
For some age discrimination that is not expressly stated in the recruitment notice, Lin Zhida suggested that applicants should pay attention to collecting evidence for the age discrimination in the recruiting unit during the recruitment process.
He also mentioned that the compliance departments within administrative organs, public institutions, central enterprises and state-owned enterprises should take good care of compliance to avoid age discrimination.
In litigation or arbitration proceedings, the employer shall bear the responsibility of explaining the reasons for "no age discrimination" or "non-employment".
Chengdu Business Daily - Red Star News reporter Wu Yang reported in Beijing