Tripartite guidelines to implement the rising the re-employment age for older employees from 65 to 67 and changing the nature of jobs and the working environment for older workers with good age management practices and redesigning job processes at the workplace.
Both MOM and WDA announced on 18 May 2016 that from 1 July this year, the WorkPro Age Management Grant and Job Redesign Grant will be enhanced to provide comprehensive support to encourage employers to put in place age-friendly practices to make work easier, safer and smarter for older workers to maximise their potential at work.
On its part, the Tripartite Guidelines on the Re-employment of Older Employees identify a number of good re-employment practices that employers should adopt
Here’s a quick look at the revised guidelines:
* To provide greater certainty for employees, employers should offer them five-year re-employment contracts, up to the age of 67.
* Alternatively, employers could re-employ employees on a term contract of at least one year and renewable up to the age of 67, so long as the employee continues to meet the eligibility criteria.
* Employers have also been urged to start talking to their employees not less than six months prior to re-employment or extension of re-employment.
* When making any wage adjustment, employers have been urged to consider the impact on the income of re-employed employees, particularly the low-wage workers.
* In the public service, in order to provide greater certainty for lower-wage public officers, these officers are re-employed at the same grade with their last drawn salaries.
* On medical benefits, employers have been urged to leverage on Medishield Life.
* While a minimum Employment Assistance Payment (EAP) of $5,500 and a maximum of $13,000 has been proposed based on 3.5 months of the worker’s salary, in the event the worker is not re-employed.
Responding to the guidelines on his Facebook page, NTUC Assistant Secretary-General, Patrick Tay said,“I am happy to note that our NTUC lobbying efforts have paid off and the new suggested base/caps of the Employment Assistance Payment (EAP) have been raised to $5,500 and $13,000 respectively (should be more if company can afford). Workers,in particular low wage workers, should not have their pay reduced when re-employed beyond 62, especially if they are still doing the same job with the same load/productivity”.
Deputy Secretary-General, Heng Chee How further emphasised, “Now that the Tripartite Guidelines have been released, companies will have a useful reference to prepare themselves and get ready for the re-employment age ceiling of 67 to be legislated and come into effect on 1 July 2017. We look forward to working with companies on this."
“Now that the Tripartite Guidelines have been released, companies will have a useful reference to prepare themselves and get ready for the re-employment age ceiling of 67 to be legislated and come into effect on 1 July 2017. We look forward to working with companies on this
“Now that the Tripartite Guidelines have been released, companies will have a useful reference to prepare themselves and get ready for the re-employment age ceiling of 67 to be legislated and come into effect on 1 July 2017. We look forward to working with companies on this." NTUC Deputy Secretary-General Heng Chee How
