With cheap foreign labour policies, who is going to hire an old hag? To pay him $400 a month salary? Another election paying lip service ploy? In the Straits Times report, Maths teacher Lee Soo Miang 61, propaganda mouthed that he realised his $100,000 savings will not be enough to last if he were to live for another 20 years. How many Singaporeons has $1000,000 in savings at 61 years of age like him?
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Sep 11, 2009
Hold on to older workers
By Ang Yiying
A CALL has gone out to companies to keep their older employees on the payroll instead of waiting for the law on this to take effect in 2012.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Lim Boon Heng said that some of these older workers may need retraining, but they are a source of labour going untapped - even as small- and medium-sized enterprises tell him about their difficulties in finding enough Singapore workers.
It is thus time to push harder for the retention and re-employment of older workers, he said.
Among workers aged 55 to 64, 57 per cent are still working, he noted, but this is a long way off from having 65 per cent of them employed by 2012.
In that year, the law will compel employers to re-hire workers who turn 62.
Speaking at an award ceremony yesterday to honour age-friendly employers, Mr Lim had this to say to those waiting for the law to kick in: 'My advice is: Don't wait. Start working on it now. You have only just over two years to get ready.'
He told reporters later that some employers were 'trapped in the mindset' that older workers have outlived their usefulness.
But the older worker will be a fixture in a work force in a rapidly greying population. In slightly more than a decade, 19 per cent of the labour force will be 55 or older - more than double the 8.3 per cent a decade ago.
The Straits Times reported last month that only 1 per cent of the more than 100,000 businesses here have committed themselves to introducing re-employment policies.
This is despite the fact that they stand to receive grants from the Workforce Development Agency's Advantage scheme if they hire, retain or re-hire those who have hit retirement age.
Home > Breaking News > Singapore > Story
Sep 11, 2009
Hold on to older workers
By Ang Yiying
A CALL has gone out to companies to keep their older employees on the payroll instead of waiting for the law on this to take effect in 2012.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Lim Boon Heng said that some of these older workers may need retraining, but they are a source of labour going untapped - even as small- and medium-sized enterprises tell him about their difficulties in finding enough Singapore workers.
It is thus time to push harder for the retention and re-employment of older workers, he said.
Among workers aged 55 to 64, 57 per cent are still working, he noted, but this is a long way off from having 65 per cent of them employed by 2012.
In that year, the law will compel employers to re-hire workers who turn 62.
Speaking at an award ceremony yesterday to honour age-friendly employers, Mr Lim had this to say to those waiting for the law to kick in: 'My advice is: Don't wait. Start working on it now. You have only just over two years to get ready.'
He told reporters later that some employers were 'trapped in the mindset' that older workers have outlived their usefulness.
But the older worker will be a fixture in a work force in a rapidly greying population. In slightly more than a decade, 19 per cent of the labour force will be 55 or older - more than double the 8.3 per cent a decade ago.
The Straits Times reported last month that only 1 per cent of the more than 100,000 businesses here have committed themselves to introducing re-employment policies.
This is despite the fact that they stand to receive grants from the Workforce Development Agency's Advantage scheme if they hire, retain or re-hire those who have hit retirement age.
