“I am responsible for managing the injuries occasionally incurred by some employees who are required to load and unload baggage from aircraft.  The majority of these employees have been performing this role for more than 10 years,” says Gina Saba, Occupational Rehabilitation Manager for Qantas Airlines Operations in Queensland Airports.

“The average age of employees performing this role is approximately 50 years. They have been performing manual handling tasks for their whole working lives and, as they age, meeting the physical demands of the job can be an issue.”

Qantas has developed a three phase process for managing ageing workers in physically demanding roles, that takes into account both the challenges and advantages older workers bring. The three steps are:

1. Early identification of potential problems, through medical and functional assessments;
2. Individual programs of strengthening and conditioning, according to need identified in step 1; and
3. Lateral integration—moving workers to different roles within the organisation—when step two is not an option.

Challenges associated with older workers

In Gina’s experience:

• Injury severity tends to increase with age, as does recovery time.
• In most instances, it is probably the accumulated affect (gradual onset) rather than one specific event, that causes injury. This means that an accident prevention focus won’t necessarily be effective.
• Older workers have a higher risk of re-injury, so a return to a pre-injury duties may not always be possible.
• Older manual workers may be very attached to a specific role, in a specific area. They may have limited skills, and the prospect of moving to a new work area or type of work can be daunting, particularly if it involves technology.

Advantages of older workers

Gina’s view is that older workers:

• Have a good work ethic;
• Bring strong experience and problem solving capacity to their role;
• View their job as their career and plan to retire with Qantas;
• Have invaluable skills and knowledge, acquired during the time they have spent with the company; and
• Are interested in learning about their own health.

Over the last 12 months, Qantas has offered fortnightly education and assessment sessions covering different health conditions relevant to its working population—and older workers are hungry for these services.

“For the education sessions, we’ve been getting very positive interest,” Gina says. “The assessment sessions (vision testing / blood pressure testing) have been inundated, with the doctor being booked out for all his sessions.”

Step One: Identifying issues via medicals and functionals

“Ten months ago we introduced voluntary medicals and functionals for staff, conducted by a doctor and physio, respectively,” Gina says.

The intent of these assessments is to identify the capacity of workers against the physical requirements of their role, and to provide them with general information about their own health and health risks.

Following the assessment, management receives a broad outline of the results, and the worker may be referred to their GP for treatment (i.e. treatment for elevated blood pressure or diabetes unrelated to their work) or to a strengthening and conditioning program. Confidential medical information is not passed on to management.

In the first ten months of this voluntary assessment program, there has been a 20-25% uptake by staff, but Gina expects the proportion of participants to increase with time.

“Initially staff were apprehensive about the program, its purpose and what information would be received by management. The information management receives is simply to help us make operational adjustments, for example by providing modified duties if necessary, or freeing up the worker to undertake a conditioning program if that’s what is required.”

Step Two: Strengthening and conditioning programs

The intent of this stage is to build strength and fitness to better enable the individual to meet the requirements of their existing role.

“We’re trying to prevent shoulder and back injuries, by strengthening the shoulder and core muscles,” Gina says. “We offer strengthening and conditioning programs, and there are also on-site stretch rooms, where workers can perform exercises.”

Some workers are enthusiastic about these opportunities to improve their health, and regain the strength and fitness necessary to continue in their manual handling role. However, it is not always possible for ageing workers to safely sustain physically demanding work.

Step Three: Internal redeployment

This stage is for people who may not be able to perform their normal duties any longer.

“We look for meaningful employment options in other parts of the company in addition to exploring opportunities for up-skilling,” Gina says.

The key to overseeing successful internal redeployment is to know what is on offer in other parts of the company.

“This year, we have improved our communication between different segments of the business,” says Gina. “Now, we’re casting a wide net in our search for places to put people who want to stay with the company. We’re trying to re-deploy them before injury becomes an issue. This pro-active approach is improving workplace morale and will be a great long term program for our employees.”

For more information about the ageing workforce, check out this RTWMatters’ cache of relevant articles.