Greetings.
Wishing all a happy 48th National Day.
For a person, basic needs – 衣食住行医教 (clothing, food, accommodation, movement/transport, health, education respectively) – matter the most.
In the area of 行（Movement, Transport）- ComfortDelGro is a household name – for the various services it offers, taxi, bus and train. What you do impact hundreds of thousands of people every day, and therefore you have an important mission.
To achieve the mission, especially in the context of a commercial entity, ComfortDelGro must aim for a Triple-Win – for commuters, workers and shareholders – if its business is to be sustainable and successful.
i. What do commuters want – better quality services at affordable prices.
ii. What do workers want – better wages and working conditions, respect for the work they do.
iii. What do shareholders want – appropriate returns on their investments.
To simultaneously achieve the desired outcomes for all 3 groups, ComfortDelGro must eventually determine how best to:
Invest in systems, technology, processes and skills development so as to enhance productivity and competitiveness – i.e. Cheaper, Better, Faster (CBF) – that will minimise cost for both company and commuters and enhance profitability.
Have enough of the right kinds of people working for it – and in today’s tight labour market, that means how to attract and retain enough good staff and workers to manage, run and maintain the growing fleet – that will produce smoother services and a more satisfied customer base.
It also means finding ways of keeping good workers for as long as possible, valuing each worker for his contribution to the company (VEW), paying him fairly for the value of his work and continually finding ways to make work easier, smarter and safer (ESS) – this will result in a more motivated workforce whose interests are well aligned with those of the company, and would therefore be more adaptable.
Ultimately, all these will not only serve to bolster the number of workers the company has to do the work, but also helps it to retain precious experience and good performers.
For this reason, the tripartite partners have over the past 5 to 6 years actively promoted the re-employment of older workers beyond the statutory retirement age of 62, and the Government passed the re-employment legislation in Jan 2011 which took effect from Jan 2012, mandating re-employment offers for retiring workers from age 62 to 65.
I have begun calling on the tripartite partners to begin collecting data, documenting implementation experience and discussing ways to take the next step of moving the upper limit of legally-mandated re-employment age from 65 to 67.
I know that there are employers who may look at such efforts as counter to their strategies and would seek to hold it off for as long as possible.
When we look at the realities of our situation, I would say that taking such a view is going to be counter-productive for such employers. The smarter ones have begun to consider how they can make best and full use of their older workers.
ComfortDelGro is a good example. Even before re-employment was legislated, it had already continued to employ its workers to the age of 65. Workers doing the same jobs carried on to 65 without suffering age-based pay cuts.
It has now further moved the employment age limit from 65 to 67, again without subjecting the older workers to any age-based cuts in terms and conditions.
To ComfortDelGro, I am sure that this is a decision that makes commercial sense, even as it also cares for and values the contributions of the older workers who wish to continue working.
This is the kind of thinking and mindset that I hope all companies and organisations in Singapore can adopt – to develop their people, to expect performance from their workers but also to value their contributions, to align their interests with those of the company for win-win outcomes.
Singapore has achieved much in these past 48 years not only because of sound policy, but also because of the solidarity and support of the People and the adaptable, win-win orientation of Singapore’s tripartite system of industrial relations.
As we celebrate how far we have come, let us continue to look at practical ways to work together to overcome the many challenges ahead, together as one nation. That way, we can make the coming years even better ones.
Happy National Day!
