RETIREMENT AGE ACT (Exemption for SIA men cabin crew and women passenger relations staff)

Dr Kanwaljit Soin asked the Minister for Labour if he will explain (i) the need to exempt men cabin crew and women passenger relations staff of the Singapore Airlines Limited from the Retirement Age Act; (ii) whether applications for exemption from other relevant businesses based on youthful looks for maintaining competitiveness will be considered as an adequate ground; and (iii) whether such ad hoc exemptions will undermine the spirit and intent of the law.

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Mr Speaker, Sir, while the basic objective of the Retirement Age Act is to provide opportunities for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents to work up to 60 and beyond, the implementation of the law must not undermine the operational efficiency and competitiveness of companies.

The airline industry is a highly competitive industry. It is common among airlines, particularly those in the Asia-Pacific region, to adopt a business strategy which projects a youthful and dynamic image to maintain and enhance their competitiveness. This strategy includes the deployment of younger personnel to provide in-flight passenger services and the maintenance of a newer fleet of aircraft. To ensure that the Retirement Age Act does not undermine the competitiveness of our airline industry and ultimately the interest of all airline employees, cabin crew has been exempted from the Act on an industry-wide basis. The exemption is applicable to both male and female cabin crew engaged by airlines in Singapore to provide in-flight passenger services.

In the case of SIA, the company has also applied to the Ministry for the exemption of its Passenger Relations Officers who provide liaison services to passengers in Changi Airport VIP lounges. For the same reasons mentioned earlier, we have also exempted them from the Act.

In granting the exemptions, the Ministry has also encouraged companies to, as far as possible, retain and re-deploy exempted employees to other suitable positions within the company upon their retirement.

Regarding Dr Soin's second question, Sir, I would like to assure her that MOL will consider youthfulness as a ground for exemption only when there is a clear need for the company to project a youthful image to help promote its products or services. For example, we have approved a cosmetic company's application to exempt its Beauty Advisors from the Act in view of the company's need to employ young sales personnel to promote their products. My Ministry will scrutinise all such applications carefully to ensure that employers are not deliberately using youthfulness as a ploy to get around the fundamental objective of the Retirement Age Act.

On Dr Soin's third question, Sir, I wish to point out that the Ministry takes into consideration a wide range of factors including the nature of the businesses, requirements of the jobs, safety of the workers, employment practices and industry norms. This is to ensure that exemptions are granted only when there are strong and valid grounds for the Ministry to do so. Exemptions granted to companies will therefore not undermine the spirit and intent of the law.

Dr Kanwaljit Soin: Sir, would the Minister agree that in the long run it will be better to build our competitiveness on grounds of safety, efficiency rather than youthful looks and that as a general rule, the Minister would advise industries that depend on youthful looks to change their strategies in the long run?

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Mr Speaker, Sir, I do agree that in the long run we should always try to compete by way of having higher quality workers, more skilful workers, and by offering a better quality service. But the fact of the case is that today, as it stands, the airline industry in particular faces tremendous competition and the competitors that SIA has to face are not subject to the same regulation of having to employ their cabin crew right up to the age of 60. So if we were to enforce this requirement on SIA right now, it will be unnecessarily hampering SIA's ability to compete successfully in the international market. 1.30 pm

Mr Speaker: Order. End of Question time.

[Pursuant to Standing Order No. 21(3), Question Nos. 16-18 have been postponed to the next sitting of Parliament.]