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SINGAPORE : Singapore needs to strive towards workplaces that are "age-neutral".
According to Manpower Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen, this describes a workplace where productivity can be the same, regardless of the worker's age.
This is something Singapore aims to achieve, with the proposed re-employment legislation.
Unions, government and employers are already working with about 100 companies on re-employing retirees.
Their experience will be used to help fine tune the final piece of legislation.
Helping Singaporeans work longer is the focus of the initiatives announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during the National Day Rally.
Current trends show that Singaporeans stop working after the age of 55.
But Dr Ng feels more needs to be done to ensure that there are enough workers, especially men, to meet the growth in jobs.
Presently, 8 out of 10 men are working at age 55 to 59.
But when it comes to age 60 to 64, only 6 out of 10 are working. The number drops further to 3 out of 10 for the age group 65 to 69.
All this means is that 21,000 men - currently aged 55 to 59 - will stop working when they turn 60 to 64 years old.
If half of this number can be urged to remain employed, that would mean adding at least another 10,000 people into the labour market to fill up the vacant jobs.
One measure which the government is working on is the re-employment legislation, which will take effect in 2012.
Stephen Lee, President of Singapore National Employers' Federation (SNEF) said: "We think it is worth a try because the alternative of raising the mandatory retirement age has not worked that well. We have raised the retirement age to 62 now, but does that mean workers will work till they are 62? The answer is no.
"For the larger companies, there are probably more possibilities, but nevertheless there are a number of things they have to do to prepare themselves to make employment of those beyond 62 possible. For the smaller companies, some have feedbacked to us that because of the smaller employment size, they have less possibilities.
"In Japan, smaller companies there too can't offer jobs within the company. (But what they did is) they will bear some costs for the retraining of the workers and place them in another company or industry. The objective is to allow workers to continue working till 65."
The Manpower Minister said he is confident Singapore will be successful in implementing the re-employment legislation. That is because there is the tripartite consensus to go ahead.
In addition, unions have told him that workers are prepared to be flexible when it comes to wages and the job scope for their re-employment.
"We cannot approach this primarily as a social mission, although that's the end, but we want to make sure that people can find work and have retirement adequacy. We must first approach this is an economic (mission), which means we should aim to make older workers economically productive and competitive," said Dr Ng.
Another step the government has taken is to increase the Workfare Income Supplement for older workers. This is to give them an extra incentive to continue working.
The additional payout will cost the government an extra $83 million. - CNA /ls
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