Dr Cheong Choong Kong, Chairman of OCBC Bank
Mr David Conner, CEO of OCBC Bank
My Parliamentary colleagues, fellow union leaders and friends
A very good morning!
1. With advancement in medical knowledge and better living conditions, Singaporeans are living longer. Today, our overall life expectancy is 79 years old. On average, women live up to 81 years old and men at 77 years old. Our life expectancy is among the highest in the world.
2. With a higher life expectancy, a key challenge is to help older Singaporeans to live a meaningful, healthy and independent life in their golden years.
Employment of Older People
3. As our people live longer, it is crucial for old Singaporeans to stay gainfully employed so that they can accumulate sufficient savings for retirement. Being employed is also important as it helps to keep them connected and engaged with society.
4. Although our life expectancy ranks among the highest in the world, our employment rate of older workers lags behind many countries. Our labour force participation rate for those who are 55 to 59 years old is only 58%. In particular, 78% of men and 39% of women in this age group are working or actively looking for work. Hence, one of the top priorities of the labour movement is to increase the employment of older workers and raise the effective retirement age.
5. Enhancing the employment of older workers would require both the individual and the society at large to make adjustments and change attitudes.
Job Redesign
6. Many employers are still not receptive to the idea of employing older workers. Many of them perceive older workers as being less productive and more expensive compared to younger workers.
7. NTUC will step up our efforts in Job Redesign to proactively engage companies and help them explore specific jobs that can be redesigned to suit older workers by utilising their strengths. This way, workers can continue to remain in the same company or perform a different job with a different wage.
Wage System and Medical Benefits
8. Another important job that we are doing is helping companies revamp their traditional wage system and medical benefits. Our wage system is seniority-based where older workers are paid higher than younger co-workers doing the same job.
9. However, the seniority-based wage system makes an older worker less attractive to employer compared to younger ones as the wage differential is not necessary correlated with higher competency and value add.
10. By restructuring the traditional wage system to job-based wage system, workers are paid in accordance to the value of the job, his capability and competency level. With the new wage structure, an older worker can be as cost effective as a younger worker performing the same job and this enhances the former’s employability. At the same time, we will work on re-employment of workers when they reach retirement age, so that they have an opportunity to continue working past retirement.
11. Many employers also complain about high medical expenses for older workers. We will help companies revamp their medical benefit scheme to one that is portable so that workers can build up their Medisave for retirement and continue to enjoy medical benefits even when they change jobs. More importantly, it helps to level the medical cost of employing younger and older workers.
Eldercare Services
12. While the labour movement wants to up the employment of older workers, we also recognise that there will be a group of elderly that would need to be supported and cared for with love by their families and the community at large. Hence, the NTUC ElderCare was set up by the NTUC to make available a range of affordable, quality and value-added care and related services for the elderly.
13. Today, we are opening the third social daycare centre managed by NTUC ElderCare to provide day-care services to elderly residents. We want to assist and support lower income families in caring for their elderly, and provide affordable quality care services for the elderly dependants of average Singaporean families.
14. In doing so, we also hope to relieve educated and skilled care-givers, especially the women, so that they could re-join the workforce and help to supplement family income.
15. As care for the elderly is labour-intensive, it is costly. Therefore the fees that we charge are not enough to cover costs.
16. I am happy to announce that the OCBC Bank will be donating $250,000 to the ElderCare Trust fund for the development purposes of NTUC ElderCare. NTUC ElderCare will make use of this donation to purchase more equipment and organise more activities for the elderly so as to provide a more holistic approach to providing for the overall well-being of the elderly under its care.
17. On behalf of NTUC Eldercare, I would like to thank our sponsors whose generous contributions make it possible for us to establish and operate these ElderCare Centres.
18. The Chinese New Year is around the corner. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all the Chinese residents Good Health and a Happy Lunar New Year.
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For media queries, please contact:
Ms Lim Beng Gii
Senior Executive
Corporate Communications Department
National Trades Union Congress
DID 6213 8186
HP 9645 4742
Email limbg@ntuc.org.sg
Ms Chong Yan Cheng
Consultant
Corporate Communications Department
National Trades Union Congress
DID 6213 8190
HP 9797 8985
Email chongycheng@ntuc.org.sg
