Introduction
Mr Speaker, thank you for allowing me to join this debate. Although this is later in the afternoon now, it is not 'time to disconnect yet, and I stand here as a Labour MP once again to speak up for and focus on advancing the interests of our older workers.
Older Workers’ Progress
First off, I must observe that our older workers have made much progress in terms of their employment, wage and employability over the decades. How come? This is due to the enlightened policies of the PAP Government and the hard work of the tripartite partners.
The employment rate of older workers aged 55-64 has risen from 66.3% in 2014 to 70.4% last year. Wages for workers aged 50 and above have also risen faster than median income. Training participation rates of those aged 50-64 in the resident workforce have also increased from 27.1% in 2014 to 33.5% in 2024.
The percentage of active CPF members who turn age 55 and who have been able to save up to their cohort Basic Retirement Sum (BRS) has increased from six in ten in 2016 to about seven in 10 in 2022. MOM projects it to reach 8 in 10 by 2027.
More to be Achieved
The Labour Movement is certainly heartened that our work advocating for improvements for the sake of our older workers, together with the support and partnership of our tripartite partners, have borne fruit systematically to improve older workers’ livelihoods.
Older Workers have even more improvements to look forward to.
To boost the retirement adequacy of both current and future cohorts of senior workers, NTUC has advocated for increases in CPF contribution rates of our senior workers. I thank the Government for raising the CPF contribution rates for senior workers again in 2026, and extending the CPF Transition Offset (CTO) towards companies in order to facilitate this improvement. I look forward to the scheduled increases up to 2030, in line with the recommendations of the Tripartite Workgroup on Older Workers. These increases will allow the contribution rates of those aged above 55, up to 60, to match those of younger workers.
The Government has also supported the tripartite consensus and announced the next statutory increase in the retirement and re-employment ages to 64 and 69 respectively to take place from 1 July 2026. On our part, the NTUC and our enterprises have moved ahead and raised our retirement and re-employment ages from 1 January this year. The public service has also announced that it will raise its retirement and re-employment ages from 1 July this year, which is a year ahead of the national timeline.
Additionally, the new Matched MediSave Scheme will help eligible older workers increase their MediSave balances and better cater for their healthcare needs. The extension of the Senior Employment Credit till end-2026 is also welcomed. This will help businesses defray part of their hiring costs for older workers, and this should make older workers more attractive to hire.
Just in January this year, Parliament passed the Workplace Fairness Bill into law. This Act is an important step forward in our fight against ageism and all forms of discrimination in the workplace. Unions will work proactively and sensibly with companies to foster age-neutrality and fairness in the treatment of older workers in our workplaces.
Challenging Times Ahead
We have indeed achieved much. But how do we ensure that we can hold on to our gains and build positively on them as we move into the future?
This is not a trivial remark because we must not under-estimate the immensity of this challenge. As many colleagues have already said so in their speeches, the world is entering a very difficult and turbulent geo-political and geo-economic era. What we are seeing now is a world where win-win mindsets wane, and instead, we see law-of-the-jungle and beggar-thy-neighbour instincts rise and be on the ascendant.
In such a climate, safeguarding our gains and achieving further good progress is not going to be easy, and it requires sustained strong mutual understanding of the joint interests and ever closer collaboration on the part of the tripartite partners to look for bold and innovative pathways forward.
I cannot over-emphasise this, because if you look back, progress has not been easy. But compared to the path ahead, I think the path that we have trodden so far is still relatively more stable. The road ahead is not going to be like that. I expect it to be a lot more bumpy.
Further Strengthening Employment of Older Workers
While the employment and labour force participation rates for our older workers have reached new highs in recent years and even bucked the trend in the rest of the world, it is not without its challenges.
Through NTUC’s extensive engagements with PMEs through the work of our PME Task Force, many older PMEs have shared that they had faced significant hurdles in getting back into work after mid-life job loss. Many also indicated that new jobs often entail substantial downward adjustment of pay and job nature. This points to the need for more concerted efforts to help middle-aged jobseekers adjust and transit so as to benefit from their continued contributions while managing the negativities. NTUC understands these challenges that our older workers are facing, our older PMEs are facing, and initiatives such as the SkillsFuture Jobseeker Support Scheme stems from our work with our tripartite partners to innovate practical help, and we thank the Government for introducing the scheme.
Examples of this close collaboration: looking forward and analysing what are the real challenges faced by our workers; finding win-win, practical and sustainable pathways and arrangements; and implementing them in good time is our hallmark. And this must continue to describe our joint approach going forward.
Earlier I said I expect the road ahead to be more bumpy.
This is firstly because the lower-hanging fruit that policy levers can achieve have been well harvested over the past years. More importantly, we must expect the international business environment, likely one where there will be a pronounced increase in nativist and protectionist behaviour by countries big and small, to put pressure on our businesses’ cost and market access. As a result, there will be knock-on effects for both enterprises and their workforces. The inherent vulnerability of older workers is therefore likely to be put under more pressure. In this regard, the tripartite partners must carefully monitor the external environment and its impact on our economy and the labour market, and at the same time plan ahead together to move swiftly to seize opportunities and be able to protect our joint gains and not let them slip away.
In this regard, it is opportune that the Government is convening a Tripartite Work Group on Senior Employment to frankly and cohesively take stock of these oncoming headwinds and forge new consensus and effective ways of maximising value for both businesses and our older workers. I fully support such a forward-looking approach. We really need this and we have to come together, look at the picture together, and find the way forward together.
Importance of Training in Face of Uncertainty
Next, I want to speak about the importance of training, in the face of such uncertainty. Against this background of heightened uncertainty and economic challenge, it is important that we keep our focus on strengthening our fundamentals. This remains our best bet to tackle all scenarios.
For older workers and their companies, one such fundamental must be workforce competency. This relates directly to a company’s competitiveness and resilience and an older worker’s employability and work prospects.
The NTUC’s Survey on Economic Sentiments 2025 found that workers’ career confidence decreases as they get older. 66% of younger workers (defined as those below 35 years old) said that there would be sufficient good jobs in the market for them. When older workers (those 55 years old and above) were asked – 43% had that confidence. Earlier findings from NTUC’s Every Worker Matters Conversations (EWMC) also found that a significant proportion of older workers are worried that they would not be given equitable consideration and access to skills upgrading and training opportunities compared to younger peers. If you are talking about these concerns in a stable environment, it is one thing, it is a challenge.
But if you are talking about these concerns in such a time of volatility, then I think we have to be even bolder, and I believe that it is a great opportunity for Singapore Inc to once again rise to the occasion and upskill our workforce, older workers included, to uplift our competitiveness, to enhance enterprise resilience, to improve our career adaptability and to forge ahead of other economies.
We have done that before – every time we had a crisis; we upturned the downturn. We not only made lemonade out of lemons, but we turned challenges into opportunities. And we must do so, because if we don’t and others do, both our companies and workers will pay dearly for it.
NTUC stands ready to work hard and work hand in hand with businesses and the Government to move in these areas. On company-level business road mapping and workforce training, NTUC’s Company Training Committees continue to scale, to broaden, and to deepen their effectiveness in companies and sectors to benefit workers of all levels and ages. And here I join my fellow Labour MPs in thanking the Government for the $200 million further injection in support of the CTCs. NTUC is also re-imagining our Job Security Council (JSC) to achieve faster, wider, and better outcomes in industry manpower, skills, job design and match outcomes, in close liaison with Government and industry.
Beyond safeguarding the interests of older workers currently in the workforce, the tripartite partners must also press on with innovative thinking on how to further activate, mobilise and enable more Singaporeans to rejoin and participate in our economy. Getting more Singaporeans to participate in our economy is important to businesses, certainly very important to our returning workers, and very important to our overall national resilience.
In a speech I made at the Debate on the Budget Statement in 2019, I specifically pointed to the potential benefit of enabling a considerable number of middle-aged caregivers to remain in work or to return to work, for the purpose of increasing the participation of Singaporeans within our workforce and economy. At that time, I pointed out that for that to happen, it would certainly take a host of adjustments in companies, workers and Government policy. This ranged from flexible work arrangements to job redesign to self-employment.
On the part of the labour market, and what employers and businesses can do – when you make your jobs more flexible, it is not a zero-one, it is not either a full-time job or not, and there are different combinations in which a person can continue to have the opportunity to stay at work, while catering to care responsibilities for example.
But for those who have already left, whatever the reason, including where the companies do not yet offer those flexible arrangements, to come back is a different proposition because they have to care for someone at home. And therefore, for them, it is not only whether there are potential employers with flexible work arrangements ready to receive them back. It is also that they need a system that creates affordable, accessible, and sustainable senior care of various types, so that they as caregivers have truly viable alternatives to provide that care to their loved ones, and then they can come back. That, pairing up with the availability of flexible work arrangements on the company side, that would make things happen.
I believe that since then, and with the more recent advent of initiatives such as MOH’s Healthier SG, Age Well SG and the various relevant initiatives on the part of MOM, I think this is a time for us to really re-look how we can integrate solutions, both on the manpower and labour market side, as well as on the social and health side, as a continuum in order to enable this return to work to happen for middle-aged caregivers in a substantial way. I think we are more ready than before.
Mr. Speaker, we have shown care for our older workers as the Government, as tripartite partners, not only in words but in deeds. As a result, we have made very substantial progress for our older workers, often bucking global trends.
The environment we must deal with will be increasingly challenging. We must come together even more than ever to seize opportunities, overcome constraints and to forge ahead for the sake of our older workers, for the sake of Singapore.
Forward Singapore!
Mr Speaker, I support the Budget.
Thank you.
