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SINGAPORE: The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) aims to reach out to 600 companies by December this year to encourage them to implement policies that re-employ older workers.
This will likely benefit some 5,000 workers who are about to reach the retirement age of 62.
SBS Transit has been picked as a company with exemplary re-employment initiatives.
67-year-old Foo Ah Boon, a service mentor with SBS Transit, said: "I teach them how to take care of the customers... it's very important to take care of the bus and (be mindful about) safety."
Mr Foo is an example of how older workers can contribute and the NTUC hopes that more companies will be able to recognise this.
The NTUC has reached out to some 430 unionised companies by March this year, urging them to commit to employing older workers beyond the retirement age of 62. At least 15 percent of them have a formalised HR policy on re-employment.
The labour movement said that so far, nearly 4,000 older workers have been re-employed.
NTUC's Secretary-General, Lim Swee Say, said: "Re-employment is not about keeping mature workers occupied simply for the sake of lengthening their employment. It should be about making productive and meaningful use of the mature workers as an asset to the organisations.
"We are pressing on with re-employment across various sectors of the economy. Working together with our tripartite partners, we want to give our mature workers the respect and dignity they truly deserve."
To ensure that companies do not lose out before Singapore's re-employment legislation comes into effect by 2012, NTUC has put in place a tracking process where it can take stock of the progress of companies in implementing re-employment policies.
NTUC's Deputy Secretary-General, Heng Chee How, said: "If the worker is valued... then in a downturn, even as the company has to look at who keeps their job, this re-employed worker is totally and equally competitive with another worker – he is not at a disadvantage."
The national target for employing older workers aged 55 to 64 is 65 percent. Currently, the figure stands at 56 percent.
- CNA/so
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