| NEWS ARCHIVES |
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| New guidelines on re-employment of older workers |
| 16 Nov 2009 |
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Workers who are unable to be re-employed after reaching their retirement age of 62 may be given some financial help.
An Employment Assistance Payment or EAP is being proposed to tide these employees over a period of time while they look for alternative employment.
The EAP is part of the draft tripartite guidelines on re-employment of older workers released today.
Saifulbahri Ismail with the details :
The guidelines seek to help businesses and employees better prepare for the Re-employment legislation in 2012.
It's an update of an advisory introduced in April last year, after taking into account feedback from both employers and unions.
A new component included in the guidelines is the Employment Assistance Payment.
It's designed to accommodate situations in which companies may not be able to offer re-employment to its workers.
This could happen when there's a need to facilitate leadership renewal and organisational change.
Deputy Secretary-General of the National Trades Union Congress, Heng Chee How, stressed that the EAP musn't be used as the first resort.
"I want to stress that the EAP, it is not a recommendation to company to say, you just pay this and wash your hands. Far from it. It is really to provide as a last resort for companies that have proven that they have undertaken best efforts and sincerely still cannot find a suitable same job or different job for their workers."
The guidelines called for a minimum EAP amount to help low-wage workers, given that they may have greater difficulty finding another job.
There should also be a maximum amount to moderate the financial burden on employers, and to prevent the EAP from encouraging employees to stop working.
Stephen Lee is the President of the Singapore National Employers Federation :
"Therefore we think that the EAP should not be a small pot of gold for the individual. So, the EAP should be appropriate just to help the worker tide over to find another job."
Besides the EAP, the draft guidelines provides other practical advice on good re-employment practices such as pre-retirement planning and re-employment consultation.
It also contained a recommendation for companies to implement a performance-based wage system.
Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong pointed out this is important as employers with older workers need to remain nimble and competitive.
"The re-employment of older workers, which allows for mutually agreeable adjustments in wages, will help companies implement competitive wages based on job worth, productivity and performance."
A public consultation on the guidelines is being carried out.
The tripartite partners expect to finalise the guidelines by early next year.
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