Efforts to re-hire older workers will reap benefits: Minister Gan
By S.Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 17 November 2009 1709 hrs

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SINGAPORE: Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong has spoken at length about the Employment Assistance Payment, saying that it is not a welfare payment. Instead it goes towards older workers who cannot be re-hired, to find new work in three months.

Mr Gan said as more older workers reach retirement, employers need to take a holistic approach to getting them re-hired at 62. These efforts will reap benefits in the eyes of investors and multinationals.

Singapore's re-employment legislation is coming into force in 2012, requiring bosses to re-hire those who have reached retirement.

New draft guidelines were released on Monday on how best to do this, and Mr Gan said it is important for the tripartite partners to get companies ready.

He said: "Some of the companies may already be downsizing. They may be undergoing restructuring, so some of the jobs may be lost as a result in the process. And it may be difficult for them to offer re-employment in that process."

In such a situation, the manpower minister said it may be easier for these companies to help the older workers find jobs elsewhere.

Mr Gan continued: "So overall, the employment assistance should also include things like career counselling to help these older workers prepare for new jobs elsewhere and also sometimes it may involve training to enhance employability so that they would be able to find jobs quicker outside.

"And the payment is another form of assistance provided to help workers tide over the period while they are looking for jobs."

The tripartite guidelines also spell out some principles which can be taken into account when finalising the quantum of the employment assistance payment. One of them is that it should not be too high so as to moderate costs for employers.

On the possible quantum of the employment payment assistance, Mr Gan said: "We will need to take into account the time needed for these older workers to find new employment and the time needed for them to go for training and so on.

"From general feedback so far, I think roughly about three months is the time needed generally for older workers to look for new employment. So this will be a good starting point."

The minister said the end result of these efforts is to create a larger pool of workers who are experienced, adding to the competitive advantage of the economy.

He added: "In the long term, I look at it positively because the MNCs and investors will look at Singapore and be convinced that we are taking proactive steps to encourage our workers to stay employed so that we have a larger pool of supply of workers, an experienced pool of workers with expertise and this will become a competitive advantage for the industry and economy.

"We have gone through many downturns together and managed the downturn through various advisory and guidelines. Like during this downturn late last year, we rolled out a series of tripartite guidelines on managing excess manpower.

"If we were to face a recession in future, we will continue with this tripartite consultative approach to help companies manage the downturn, both in normal employment and reemployment." - CNA/vm