PENSIONS (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

3.20 p.m.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance (Mr Tang See Chim) (for the Minister for Finance): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

The purpose of this Bill is to enable all women officers who have joined the Government service on or after the 1st of July, 1956, to retire at the optional age of 50 years.

On 1st March, 1962, the P.A.P. Government took the revolutionary step of accepting the policy of equal pay for women. We are the first Government to do this in South-east Asia, possibly in the whole of Asia. Women officers have been accorded terms and conditions of service similar to those applicable to male officers in Government service. These include the condition relating to age of retirement. Under the provisions of the Pensions Ordinance, which came into force on 1st July, 1956, the normal age of retirement for male officers recruited before that date is 55 years and for those recruited after that date, 60 years. Women officers, in the light of the equal treatment policy, are therefore allowed to opt to accept the men's age of retirement, that is, 55 or 60 years, especially in the case of those women officers who were appointed to the service before 1st March, 1962, or who were re-appointed after resignation on account of marriage.

I may add that under the Pensions Ordinance there is also provision for those women officers in service before 1st July, 1956, to retire on their attaining the age of 45 years if they have so elected, but the number of such women officers has dwindled to a few now, with the passage of time.

Experience has shown that women officers are generally not in favour of remaining in the service until the same retirement age as men. The majority of them prefer to retire at an earlier age.

The provisions of this Bill seek to accommodate the wishes of the majority of Government women officers who thus have the best of both worlds. They are not only equal with men; they are, in fact, now more equal.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.

The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Mr Tang See Chim].

Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.