BUS drivers with SBS Transit can continue working beyond the official retirement age of 62 without suffering any loss in pay or benefits.
They can now work until 65, the company's new retirement age for drivers - who are in short supply here.
However, they can opt to switch to a different role, such as coaching new drivers on how to navigate a crowded road.
The new retirement age was announced yesterday by SBS Transit, which pinpointed the high-level skills of these older drivers as the reason for its move.
Its chief operating officer, MrGan Juay Kiat, said: 'We've noticed that older bus captains tend to be more patient and careful when driving. The experience they have gathered over the years also means they can pass valuable pointers to new bus captains.'
The company's move comes amid a worsening shortage of bus drivers. Already short of 200 drivers, it has come under further pressure as it will need 100 more to comply with the Public Transport Council's new requirement, which calls for bus operators to shorten commuters' waiting times by August next year.
SBS Transit is one of two main bus operators here, the other being SMRT.
To ease the shortage, the company hires permanent residents and Malaysians, and is looking into employing mainland Chinese.
In all, two in three of the 5,200 SBS Transit drivers are aged 40 and older.
One of them is Mr Lim Boh Cher, 60, who has been ferrying commuters for 37 years. He was pleased with the latest announcement.
'I love my job too much to think about retirement,' said Mr Lim, whose monthly pay, including overtime, is about $2,600.
'Besides, staying home is boring.'
Praising SBS's new move, labour chief Lim Swee Say said it marked a mindset change that employers must adopt ahead of a new law on re-employment. The law, which will take effect in 2012, requires companies to offer jobs to workers when they turn 62.
Said the labour chief: 'Some companies say if you want to continue working beyond 62, it must be subject to health, job performance and so on. Here (at SBS), it's the opposite. You can work until age 65, provided you are healthy, perform well and so on.
'That is a big change in mindset,' he said after touring its East district headquarters in Ang Mo Kio, accompanied by 40 union leaders.
To coax more bosses to rehire older workers, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) groups companies on a four-tier scale based on the re-employment measures they have taken. So far, 433 out of 1,000 unionised companies have introduced such measures. Of these, 15 per cent are at the top two levels, NTUC said.
Mr Lim Swee Say said NTUC's immediate goal is to convince companies to 'at least take the first step'.
'Eventually, we want them to recognise that re-employment is the way to go, and to look at mature workers as a source of expertise and experience,' he said.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on May 14, 2008
