Employers must see the value in hiring and retaining older workers

IT'S a move five long years in the making. The government first announced its intention to raise Singapore's re-employment age to 67 back in 2012, and on Monday, Parliament finally made it official after a lengthy debate that lasted nearly three hours.

From July 1 this year, employers here must offer older workers re-employment until they turn 67, up from age 65 currently. If they cannot, they have a new option to transfer the worker to another employer, failing which they must offer the eligible worker an Employment Assistance Payment (EAP) that's capped at S$10,000.

Another big change that was passed into law this week is the removal of an outdated provision that allows employers to cut the wages of their staff at age 60. This is a timely and welcome move. After all, over 98 per cent of private sector local employees who wished to continue working at age 62 were eventually offered re-employment, and almost all of them who accepted re-employment in the same job did not experience any reduction in their basic wages.