By Joy Fang

MADAM Foo Yoke Lan refuses to let age become a barrier to her work.

The 64-year-old cook at Han's Cafe & Cake House has been working since she was 19 years old and does not want to stop, even though her two children ask her to.

"I like working. You earn your own money to spend and don't rely on your children," she said.

Elderly workers like her were the focus of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's keynote address at the "Reinventing Retirement Asia: Employment and Active Engagement Beyond 50" conference yesterday.

While the Government has introduced a slew of measures to encourage the elderly to remain in the workforce, family attitudes also need to change.

Some elderly women left their jobs as hotel-room attendants at their children's request.

PM Lee said: "It is honourable employment... There is no reason for the family of the worker to feel ashamed, or for society to look down on attendants or their families."

He emphasised that elderly workers are valuable to the employers – a point on which employers agreed.

Mr Lee Kok Kee, 46, a logistics centre manager who attended the conference, said: "When we ask elderly workers to do things, they know just what to do because they have done it before."

In agreement, Mr Gan Yee Chin, deputy general manager of Han's, where one in 10 workers is aged above 60, said: "We believe older workers have value. So long as they are willing to work, have positive attitudes and are healthy, we will select them.

"We have no discrimination against them."

Mr Edward Jones, associate director of international affairs at AARP, which is a co-organiser of the conference along with the Council for Third Age, said he was impressed with PM Lee's speech.

"The Government of Singapore is looking at very practical ways of improving the lives of the elderly people here," he said. All Madam Foo wants to do is to continue to work as long as she remains healthy.

"It doesn't mean after people turn 60, they have to stay at home. If they can work, let them work," she said.

joyfang@sph.com.sg

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