Too Old - but not!!!

The province I am working in China (Jiangxi province) has an age limit of 60. I am 61, so my university cannot renew my contract!!! Bloody ridiculous I call it. In my opinion, I am a better teacher now than I ever was (call it experience.)

So, I am now in discussion with anther uni in another province, whose age limit is 65.

Seems crazy that central government leaves it up to provincial governments to decide who is 'too old' or otherwise.

Al.

China is not as unified as people think: I can remember Jiangxi charging import duty on cars made in the next province...

A lot of overseas employers now set age limits. I have come across 60 for Saudi or at least some companies in Saudi.

Good luck with the alternative option.

Any countries without real employment laws like the Middle East can blatantly do what ever they like, they can specifically advertise for a certain sex, race and age, that is the norm there when advertising jobs.

That is certainly the case in the Philippines, where a girl over 25 is just about unemployable as a waitress or a shop assistant.

You are right Andrew, my wife struggled like hell to get a job there on her return from Dubai whereas her daughter who is a recent graduate can pick and choose her job. What a waste of good talent, doesn't make any sense at all to me, it really doesn't. Another I don't understand is why people there accept it.

I think it is a consequence of the exploding population and the really very high levels of unemployment and underemployment. Regardless of any protections written into the labor code ( and there are some!) employers can find a way round them. Another trick is employing people for a few months so that they do not become permanent employees and as such they are not protected by the legislation. So far as I know, the malls all do this,

I'm flabbergasted that there's a labor code or maybe I'm not. Maybe I just accept the ignorance of an advert expressly displaying sexism and ageism without one thought to that labor code. I guess if those things aren't acted upon it will never change.

If we cast our minds back twenty or so years ago there was a lot of age discrimination going on in the UK, thankfully that seems to have reversed somewhat.

I remember my wife telling me that she would never get a job in the Philippines because she is too old, I said "is that it then for you" to which she replied "more or less." She thought I was exaggerating when I said none of that goes on here in the UK.

Maybe that answers why there's a high proportion of people who have their "own business" in PI. Own businesses and franchise are the order of the day.

Its having the cash to do it, I quite like those little selling out shops people have at the front of their house, you can sit and watch telly between customers, probably little profit to be had but helps things tick along financially.

Yep very common to have sari sari store. One of the things I've noticed is that people buy sachets of a product rather than say a bottle of it like we do, be it coffee or whatever. This allows the sari sari to exist, putting a piso or so on each item adds to the household. I've sat in someones front room (whom I don't know), eating lechon manok and coke, having just bought it from them on their bbq stand.

You've probably hit the nail on the head there, small consumers for small family shops, I've observed the same.

K's sister in law is asking her to sell cosmetics. K's immediate question was "what is the selling price?" She made the point that expensive products don't move. K has been occupying herself selling longganiza and dried fish from door to door in her barangay, just for something to do.

It was put in place under the Americans and revised, sensibly, under Marcos (who employed a number of good technocrats), by Blas Ople, who was one such good technocrat ( he set up the POEA) but it has not been touched since.

The major weakness is that it is drafted to apply only to full time employees who have been in post for more than six months

This is going to be rather relevant to me, shortly

Yes. But they can use another excuse though.

In fact it is perfectly possible to "retire" somebody without giving a reason.

Exactly.