ELECTION 2010: Abbott to offer employers incentives to hire older workers

Coalition leader Tony Abbott has promised to provide cash incentives to employers who hire workers aged 50 years or over in a policy designed to increase workforce participation for older Australians and help reduce Australia’s looming skills shortage.

Under a policy formally launched this morning, an Abbott Government would give employers $3250 if they hire an unemployed person over 50 years of age.

The money would be paid as a lump sum after the worker has been in six months of continuous employment, although it is unclear whether the worker can be hired on a full-time or part-time basis.

The Coalition’s Seniors Employment Incentive Payment would come into effect from 1 July 2011 if the Coalition wins government and would then be reviewed after three years.

The job-seekers must be registered with Centrelink at the time of securing the employment. The Coalition says the subsidy equates to $250 a fortnight for six months, about half the cost of unemployment benefits.

“We know that for all sorts of reasons – not all of them good reasons – not all employers are as generous to older job seekers as they should be,” Abbott told reporters this morning.

“It’s not enough to encourage the employers with mere works…it needs hard benefits.”

While the program is likely to be welcomed by seniors groups and business lobbies alike, the business community remains divided over another Abbott plan: to introduce a generous paid parental leave scheme funded by a 1.5% levy on businesses with over $5 million in profit.

Both the Australian Chamber of Commerce and the Business Council of Australia say any parental leave scheme should be funded by the government, with the BCA describing Abbott’s announcement as “policy on the run”.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has seized on the opposition to the Abbott’s paid parental leave plan, saying the scheme was beset by “chaos and confusion” and claiming Abbott could not be relied upon to actually deliver the plan.

Gillard has again challenged Abbott to a debate on the economy, which she is now clearly trying to put at the centre of the campaign.

The continued debate talk comes as the Australian Financial Review reports an Abbott Government would launch a mini budget shortly after winning office in order to implement the $24 billion worth of cuts it needs to fund its big election promises.