Re-Employment of Those Above 62 Years

Ms Foo Mee Har asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Manpower with regard to workers who are re-employed at 62 years of age (a) what proportion of these re-employed workers experience a change in their job scope; and (b) what proportion of these re-employed workers suffer a reduction in pay and/or benefits despite being retained to perform the same jobs.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: MOM conducted a survey on the Retirement and Re-employment Practices in Singapore in the fourth quarter of 2011. Preliminary findings show that there were some 11,500 local employees who turned 62 in the year ending June 2011 in private establishments with at least 25 employees.

Among these 11,500 local employees, slightly over nine in 10 continued to be employed beyond age 62. Nearly two-thirds had carried on working on their existing employment terms (or what we call sail-through cases), while about 30% were re-employed under a new contract. Of this latter group, 96% or almost all had no change in their job scope.

For all employees who continued working in the same job beyond 62, including both sail-through cases or those re-employed on a term contract, 95% or almost all were paid at least the same wages.

The same survey also found that about one in 10 private establishments, which allowed re-employment in the same job or allowed their employees to carry on working on their existing terms, had a policy of making adjustments to the employment benefits of their employees, such as the provision of annual leave and medical benefits.

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The high proportion of workers who continued to be employed beyond the age of 62 last year in the same job, and paid at least the same wages, is likely to be the result of the tight labour market conditions and the success of tripartite efforts to promote re-employment. With the Retirement and Re-employment Act coming into effect in January this year, employers are now legally obliged to offer re-employment to all local employees who have satisfactory performance and are medically fit. As it has only been five months since the legislation has been in place, we do not have sufficient data from which to draw conclusions about the patterns of re-employment since the Act came into effect. Nonetheless, MOM, together with the tripartite partners, is closely monitoring the implementation of the re-employment policy on the ground. We want to ensure that re-employment is implemented in the right spirit and in line with intent of the re-employment legislation.