More firms re-hiring older workers

AT 72, electrical engineer Sik Sing still keeps the flour-making machines humming at flour manufacturer Prima Limited.

And when his wife Chye Moey turned 62 last year, the company asked her to stay on as a packing machine operator on a yearly contract instead of retiring.

The couple are beneficiaries of Prima's longstanding re-employment policy, which chief executive officer Primus Cheng said was one which valued the loyalty, experience and contributions of older employees.

The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) - which wants to see more companies keep older workers on the job - yesterday cited Prima as a model.

It noted that Prima's re-employment offer to those who reach retirement age pre-dates the national effort which began more than three years ago.

At Prima Limited, 23 employees in its 252-strong workforce were re-employed after reaching the retirement age of 62.

Among the oldest is Mr Sik, who agreed to a 20 per cent cut in his pay and 50 per cent reduction in bonuses so he could keep working.

'I've been in this job for almost 50 years now. I can teach the younger ones who don't have experience to slowly take over,' said Mr Sik, who now draws a monthly salary of $2,600.

'If I stayed at home, I wouldn't have anything to do.'

NTUC deputy secretary-general Heng Chee How, who visited Prima Limited's flour-milling factory at Keppel Road yesterday, said there has been no let-up in efforts by the labour movement to get all 1,200 unionised companies to adopt re-employment practices before January 2012.

That is when a law requiring employers to re-hire workers beyond the retirement age of 62 is due to be introduced.

He told reporters that as at the end of last month, 747 unionised companies had adopted re-employment practices - up from 565 a year ago.

More older workers were also being re-employed in unionised firms. Latest figures showed that at the end of last month there were 5,421 such workers - up from 4,639 a year ago.

Re-employment practices were also becoming more established, said Mr Heng, who was accompanied on his visit by NTUC secretary-general Lim Swee Say and other union leaders.

Companies that re-hire older workers in an ad hoc fashion were realising that they must be more systematic and plan for re-training well ahead of employees reaching retirement.

This is so they can cope with the wave of babyboomers who will be turning 62 in the coming years.

He noted at least one-third of unionised companies had yet to commit to re-employment practices.

Some argued that this was because they have a young workforce. Others said they had more pressing concerns, and felt they could address the re-employment issue later.

Some companies also believed that a new set of prescriptions on re-employment would be issued by the Government - and so they would wait for that to happen.

But Mr Heng told them not to wait as there would be no such prescriptions.

He instead encouraged them to be proactive and to come up with arrangements and re-employment practices which suited their specific needs.

Besides the NTUC's efforts, the Manpower Ministry and the Singapore National Employers Federation were also reaching out to the more than 100,000 non-unionised companies - mostly small and medium enterprises - to do the same.

- The Straits Times