I THANK Ms Sue-Ann Chia for her commentary last Friday, 'Rehiring loopholes need to be plugged'.

Singapore's larger goal behind the upcoming legislative changes to facilitate re-employment is to enhance the employment rate of older workers to address the impact of our ageing population, rising longevity and low fertility rate on our economy. The alternative to re-employment is to rigidly raise the statutory retirement age. This would impede the flexibility of the labour market and discourage employers from hiring older workers.

Contrary to Ms Chia's assumption that companies would see the Employment Assistance Payment (EAP) as a cheaper option than re-employment, a recent Ministry of Manpower survey showed that 94 per cent of companies which did not have a retirement age allowed their employees to continue working past the statutory retirement age. And the employment rate for men aged 55 to 64 has also gone up. This shows that employers do value and want to retain older workers.

Maybank is a recent example of such a company, as it signed an agreement with its unions to implement key features in the guidelines, in particular aiming to re-employ all its older employees and offering EAP only as a last resort.

Far from being 'a compromise among the parties', as assumed by Ms Chia, the EAP, with other assistance measures such as career counselling, suitable training and outplacement assistance, seeks to uphold the interests of older workers and assist them in situations where they are not re-employed. It is an integral part of the draft guidelines, which aim to encourage employers to put in place proper HR policies and processes to prepare for re-employment and embrace older workers as an important and valuable part of the workforce.

The tripartite partners will continue to work with employers and unions to refine the draft guidelines with public consultation. This will help prepare the ground for the upcoming legislative changes to facilitate re-employment, create age- friendly workplaces and enhance the employment rate of older workers. The successful implementation of re-employment in Singapore will ultimately benefit companies, workers and the economy.

Alexander Melchers
Chairman
Tripartite Implementation Workgroup on Employability of Older Workers

This article was first published in The Straits Times.