Ellis ready to fight ageism for mature employees | Loop Barbados

Black Immigrant Daily News

Veteran journalist David Ellis returned to the airwaves and pulled no punches as it relates to some employers showing the door and giving walking papers to persons 45 years and older in this Barbados.

He said that he is not standing for, nor supporting ageism.

After a caller welcomed him and his years of expertise as a moderator back to the mic, lamenting the fact that some other younger persons cannot provide the contributions that he would make on the show, Ellis responded saying:

“I really believe that within the context of the media in the country there is a need for that mix of personalities and that mix of ages. So I’m glad to see younger people come into the picture as well, but I also feel very strongly that this country, we the older people need to stand up and be counted.”

Adamantly, he contended:

“This idea that Barbados now must be run almost exclusively by people in their forties and that sort of thing, and that older people must take a backseat and must run and hide and duck, is not something that I agree with.”

And he argued that others should not just swallow it either. Having retired from journalism to take up his previous COVID Public Advisor post, now resigned from that role and back on air for scheduled shows, he urged:

“Too many older people are buying into this idea that you have retired and because you have retired you have to go sit down on your pension.

“You know how much money a lot of these people get for pension? You’d be shocked at what some of those people earn. People who have done so much for this country, and then a handful of vocal people out there on social media in particular, want to run people under a rock, I don’t agree with that.

“And I am one of the people who would be prepared to stand up and fight against that kind of behaviour.”

His comments comes after residents in the St John Talks with ministers and the Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley talked about how skilled and qualified persons of all ages were unemployed and finding it difficult to find gainful employment.

But on the point of the plight of the mature workers specifically, Ellis went on to say, “This country has a situation where it does not have enough people to sustain its National Insurance Scheme in the current circumstances. It needs as many people as it can get to help this economy and to keep it moving and that sort of thing, and there is a lot of shortsightedness, and as a result we have ageism. You try to get rid of people from the time they hit 45 and 50 and the people who suffer most of all are the women in the country. That is what I think we need to stand up and fight against.”

And the caller, who was in full support, added he too is one who does not support “pelting away older employees” because, according to him, “experience should be used till the very end.”

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