Getting on in the BBC: a case study of older workers

National (and international) trends in the employment of older workers show a decline in the economic participation of older people, and especially ol der men, since the 1970s, and general evidence of age discrimination in the workplace. This case study of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) e xamines statistical patterns in the fortunes of staff aged 50 years and ove r in a company with good reason to buck the trends. The BBC is a large, pub licly-funded, equal opportunities employer endeavouring to reflect a divers e nation in its staff composition. The research is in two parts. First, we carried out a comparison at five-year intervals of the age profile of the C orporation and observed trends in official retirement at age 60 and the emp loyment of staff working beyond retirement age, from 1978 to 1993 Secondly, an age-related analysis of departures, recruitment and part-time working w as undertaken for a In-month period, from 1992 to 1993. The research revealed the increasing marginalisation of older workers at th e BBC. This accelerated during a period of substantial contraction in the l atter part of the Ig-year study period and led to an age profile far younge r than in other public sectors such as Local Government. Pressures to becom e 'lean and efficient' appeared to have been at the expense of older worker s, who were unprotected in the workplace.