Study Shows Singapore Companies “Not Ready” for Re-employment of Older Workers

A new study conducted by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) showed that more than half of the companies operating in Singapore do not have structured consultation process in line with the requirements of the Tripartite Guidelines on Reemployment of Older Employees.

With this finding, employment experts said that any Singapore company should implement policies which can provide reasonable accommodations to older employees.
The study – covering some 100 companies, unions, and organizations in Singapore – said that companies are “not ready” for the implementation of the said labor law and that more effort is needed to provide proper consultations process among employees reaching the mandatory retirement age of 62.

In his speech during the National Day Observance ceremony, Minister Lim Boon Heng of the Prime Minister’s Office said that more than half of the firms surveyed have yet to put up structured consultation process while another 70 percent need to further enhance talks with their employees over the certainty of reemployment with their respective companies.

Minister Lim also noted that only 30 percent of the companies surveyed have already put up consultation processing for their employees, which includes reemployment offers three months before the retirement age. “The new legislation aims to give opportunity to older workers who want to remain economically productive even after their retirement age. But there are more work needed to further enhance its implementation,” the minister said.

But despite some “minor” setbacks prior to its full implementation in 2012, Minister Lim expressed confidence that the new law will pick up pace within the next few months, noting that majority of the employers and business owners in Singapore are well aware of the situation. “Many companies are yet to put up consultations with their workers. But, in line with the Tripartite Guidelines, many of the employers [roughly 60 percent] have already prepared several reemployment criteria for their older workers, including performance and medical fitness,” the official said. These companies have also prepared severance and assistance payment for those employees who will not be rehired, Lim said.

Based on the data given by the NTUC, at least 9,400 workers, above the age of 62, have already been reemployed by their respective companies. As of July 2010, the number of rehires has increased by 34.5 percent from 7,000 during the same period last year. Also, Minister Lim said that the number of companies with labor unions practicing the Tripartite Guidelines has reached record-high of 957 in July compared to 128 in January this year.

The minister also urged labor unions and workers’ group to continuously remind their companies about their responsibilities to older employees. Meanwhile, the country is facing a shortage of Singaporean workers which has forced the government to pass immigration policies including the Singapore Personalized employment pass (PEP) which encourage foreign professionals to get work visas in Singapore without securing a job.

Rikvin, a Singapore company incorporation specialists, has seen an increase in the application of PEP from foreign individual and has helped many secure their work visas. For more information, please visit: Personalised Employment Pass

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Tags: employment pass, immigration, migrate, PEP, singapore