A number of wholesale stores in Kingston’s busy Cross Roads area are refusing to hire people over 23 years old, claiming that they are old, a Sunday Observer probe has uncovered. At the same time, at least one store owner is averse to employing women with children as, he said, mothers are unreliable.

The Sunday Observer’s attention to the issue was attracted by a sign displayed on the front door of a Cross Roads wholesale last week that read: ‘Help wanted, 17 – 23, ID’.

Upon investigation, the Sunday Observer was told by one of the managers in a very impolite manner that persons must be in the age group specified and that was final.

“We don’t want any old people,” the manager said, looking this reporter up and down.

When he was asked how he knew the reporter didn’t fit the category, he responded: “Do you have an ID? Let me see your ID.”

When asked why persons had to be between 17 and 23, he pointed out that the staff, which included supervisors, was made up of “young people” and because “old people” do not want to take instructions from these young people, their employment was out of the question. According to his specification, ‘old’, in essence, begins at age 24.

The manager went on to point out that they were also not interested in employing any mothers, as mothers tend to “come to work when they feel like it and have too much responsibilities”.

Asked if the person seeking employment was childless but older than 23, he said firmly, “We are still not taking any old people.”

With that answer, he turned his back on this reporter and focussed his attention to stocking perfumes on a shelf.

When this reporter approached other stores in Cross Roads seeking a job, two of the questions posed by managers were about the reporter’s age and whether or not she had children.

Armed with that information, the Sunday Observer contacted the Pay and Conditions of Employment branch in the Ministry of Labour trying to find out whether the labour law speaks to discrimination in relation to age and mothers.

A manager at the branch, who insisted on anonymity, browbeat this reporter before saying that these employers cannot be stopped from making their own specifications as it is not written in black and white that they cannot.

The Pay and Conditions of Employment branch came to public attention recently when it was asked to investigate widespread abuses of the labour law in wholesales in downtown Kingston, after a recent report showed women working under substandard conditions.

“There is no offence committed under the labour law,” the manager said angrily. “Why do you think this is a labour law matter? You can’t stop them from doing what they want to do! When people have children, yes, they sometimes want to go home early and the store may want to close late. So there is no offence if they choose to employ women without children.”

He went on to state that there was no breach of the law if wholesale owners ask for people in a specific age group, as long as they are of the opinion that people in this age group will be able to carry out their tasks better.

“Nobody can tell me an offence is being committed,” he said. “I am going through every letter of the law and if I don’t see it in black and white, then I can do nothing about it. It might be immoral, slack or unfair, but you can’t do them anything.”

However, Faith Webster, acting executive director at the Bureau of Women’s Affairs, said specifying that women will not be employed because they are mothers is definitely discrimination on the basis of sex.

“Men cannot bear children, so that is simply, straight and definite discrimination that should not be allowed to happen,” she said, explaining that any such practice is a breach of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) agreement, which the Government of Jamaica has signed.

“If you say you are not taking women because they have children, it must be some kind of discrimination,” said Webster. “Although our constitution does not have discrimination on the basis of sex, CEDAW does. We are, therefore, working to ensure that the Jamaican constitution includes discriminating on the basis of sex.”

She added: “I don’t know what perspective the labour ministry is coming from, but that is exactly why we need to work, not just with the public, but with the various ministries. They (labour ministry) can’t say they (employers) can do this, because the ministry has heard of CEDAW.”

On the matter of age discrimination, Webster noted that Jamaica has to look at the matter and address it as a country.

“Unless the person is retired, then it is up to the individual’s disposition,” she said, explaining that if the individual suffers a condition that will prevent him/her from performing a particular job, then they can be rejected.

“There is a general problem with the attitude towards age,” she said. “If you reach 40 or near to it, some employers start looking at you as old. This is not just in the wholesales, but in the society overall. Thank God for the civil service which takes on the older, more mature persons, but if these persons should get laid off that would pose a problem.”

Webster said one of the main reasons for taking on these young persons is simply because employers want to pay them “little or nothing” for their service.