NTUC, employers looking at more ways to get older workers re-employed - Singapore's Online Community

**djchris** · 05-02-2007, 09:31 AM

SINGAPORE: The labour movement aims to get more older workers re-employed this year, with new policies that include promoting health programmes for them at work.

Already, more older workers - aged 60 to 64 - were employed last year compared to 2004.

About four in 10 such workers were employed last year, up from just three in 10 in 2004.

This year, the labour movement is targeting to get 4,000 workers to work beyond the age of 62.

49-year-old Oh Kim Choo has been working at Murata Electronics for more than 30 years.

She rose from being a production operator to her existing position as a foreman.

She hopes to continue working when she hits 62.

She said: "If a worker reaches retirement age but is still physically fit and able to contribute to the company, then it shouldn't be a problem for the company to retain the worker. I'll like to continue working because I have nothing to do at home when I retire and I will degenerate!"

Her wish may just come true.

About 42% of workers above 60 to 64 were re-employed last year, compared to 33% in 2004.

But whether this can be sustained depends on the economy as well as employers themselves.

Stephen Lee, President of SNEF and Chairman of Singapore Business Federation, said: "Because of the very vibrant job market, we have seen a good improvement. It would be nice if we could keep that and build on it. Employers and companies also have the responsibility to redesign the jobs with the older workers in mind. Physically, the older workers are not the same as 20 years ago, the way they were 20 years ago. It involves some redesigning of jobs so as to make it more suitable for older workers to fill the jobs and typically companies will incur some costs in doing that."

With four in 10 older workers aged 60 to 64 now employed, this puts Singapore ahead of countries like France and Germany but Singapore still lags behind Japan and Sweden.

Unionists and employers hope to see four to five older workers for every 10 being employed over the next few years.

The labour movement is also doing its part.

Besides skills training and job redesign, it is coming up with specific programmes to get more older workers re-employed beyond the age of 62.

Halimah Yacob, NTUC Assistant Secretary-General, said: "What we want to do is to launch a health programme that can make it possible for workers to take care of their health and be re-employed after 62. We are working with companies to encourage them to adopt a policy of re-employment much earlier. Instead of ad hoc, have a policy system in place where the company consciously thinks about workers before they reach 62, what to do with them, re-deploy them, re-train them, health issues, what to do with health issues, their performance issues, which we accept could arise also."

Next month, the NTUC plans to launch a health programme to help older workers keep tabs of their own well-being. - CNA/ir

**djchris** · 05-02-2007, 09:32 AM

Being an elderly in Singapore very jialat..so old liao still must work...

**vgohyk** · 05-02-2007, 01:12 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by djchris
	Being an elderly in Singapore very jialat..so old liao still must work...

No choice eh. "No work here you will die here!"

**ic3st0rmer** · 05-02-2007, 02:31 PM

LoL~ depends la... if you're at a retiring age, but you're still healthy, etc... can still continue to work mahz. then also can teach the younger ones who're working in the same line.

like nursing like that, it's still those seniors who teach us, the students mahz... even if not in sch, even if it's outside @ hospital, they teach us the things that we dont know or the things that we can't learn from sch, etc..

**djchris** · 05-02-2007, 02:38 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by ic3st0rmer
	LoL~ depends la... if you're at a retiring age, but you're still healthy, etc... can still continue to work mahz. then also can teach the younger ones who're working in the same line. like nursing like that, it's still those seniors who teach us, the students mahz... even if not in sch, even if it's outside @ hospital, they teach us the things that we dont know or the things that we can't learn from sch, etc..

When you reach retirement age, do you still want to work for money?

For me, I would want to either do something I like (travel and stuff), or work in a job that I like (because of interest and not money), or start a business that I'm passionate in.