Prima Limited (Singapore), a significant company in the food and beverage industry, has signed a Collective Agreement (CA) with the Food Drinks and Allied Workers Union (FDAWU) to re-employ workers beyond age 65. Workers with satisfactory performance and health who reach age 65 will be offered a contract till age 68. They will enjoy the same pay and conditions if they do the same job.
At the signing of the CA on 23 August 2013, Mr Heng Chee How, Deputy Secretary-General, NTUC said, “Prima’s agreement with the FDAWU is yet another example of a company valuing their older workers, and knowing how to motivate these workers to give their best even as they go beyond the current re-employment age limit of 65. I have been advocating for the limit to move from 65 to 67. Prima has done even better, and has gone further to re-employ their workers till 68. Well done! I urge all companies to learn to do likewise, and help themselves overcome the challenges of a tight labour market.”
General-Secretary of the FDAWU, Mr Tan Hock Soon said, “Generally, more unionised companies in the food and beverage industry are already hiring on an ad-hoc basis for workers beyond 65 years old. Prima is the first company to formalise their re-employment policy (beyond 65 years old) with FDAWU. This lets their staff particularly the older workers, know that their jobs are secure and that they can look forward to earning better wages to meet their future retirement needs. We hope that more unionised companies will follow suit soon and assure workers this way.”
Mr Primus Cheng, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Prima Limited mentioned, “Since Prima’s inception, our late founder, Mr Cheng Tsang Man, actively advocated long service, so long as the staff is happy in his work. This was his way to nurture a sense of belonging, and to create a ‘Prima Family’ identity. Prima appreciates that the majority of its staff are long service staff, even up to 50 years.”
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