A very good morning to all.
Singaporeans are living longer on the whole. In 1965, the average life expectancy of a Singaporean was 65 years old. Today, it is more than 80 years old. With good healthcare, life expectancy will increase further into the future.
An aging citizen population also means an aging citizen workforce.
What does living longer mean for a worker?
First, he knows that he has to have enough money to use for the added years that he is going to live. Where is that money going to come from? As a worker, his salary is a big part of the solution. How long he can continue to work is the other big factor.
Second, he knows that even if he has the money but has to live many of the final years in sickness, pain and misery, then there is not much point.
Third, he knows that his health affects his performance at work, and also affects his chances of employment as he ages.
The Labour Movement is of the same view. This is why we have focused our efforts to bring about concrete improvements in all these areas.
In the area of extending working years, we have pushed strongly with the tripartite partners to enable this. The statutory retirement age has been extended from 55 to 60 to 62. From January 2012, the re-employment law has also obliged employers to re-employ their workers reaching 62 until 65. NTUC is now advocating to the tripartite partners to begin considering and examining how to further raise the re-employment age limit from 65 to 67. As a result of these concrete efforts and achievements, thousands of older workers have been able to earn more income by continuing to work, and thereby provide better for their retirement years.
NTUC has also actively championed fair pay for re-employed workers. In a recent survey of more than 100 unionised companies, close to 4 in 5 companies keep the pay of their re-employed workers intact if they are doing the same job as before. A separate survey by MOM of companies in general has yielded similar results.
We are encouraged by these findings which go to show that employers in general value their re-employed workers and their contributions. We are sharing these findings with employers in both the private and public sectors, and continue to press for more enlightened practice. For the public sector, which uses a formula to implement tiered cuts in pay at the point of re-employment, the Labour Movement has reiterated our call for a review during this year's Budget Debate and in subsequent bilateral meetings, to bring the practice in line with the broad reality in the private sector as soon as possible.
Bargaining over pay and benefits, while important, is only half the story. For if a worker loses the job due to poor health, then even the most attractive of terms would be meaningless to him. Even if he remains employed but has to spend a large part of his earnings treating his illnesses, the quality of life and standard of living will definitely suffer.
On the companies' end, they worry about escalating healthcare and health insurance costs, as well as performance issues that an aging workforce might bring if not well managed. Unless practical and win-win ways are found to get companies and workers to focus on improving workforce health, the deep-seated anxiety will hurt the employment prospects for older workers.
For this reason, the NTUC appreciates the WorkPro Programme that the MOM launched this year. The Age Management portion of the WorkPro Programme aims squarely at enabling companies to better prepare their human resource and operations policies as well as the design of their jobs for an aging workforce.
To maximise the value and accelerate the adoption of the Age Management initiatives for companies and workers, NTUC and the Health Promotion Board (HPB) have discussed and have agreed to work closely together. The HPB will help companies under the WorkPro (Age Management) programme customise their workplace health efforts to also meet the needs of an older worker segment. In this way, the companies will benefit directly from the WorkPro grants as well as enjoy recurrent savings in health expenditures as their older workers maintain or improve their health.
Reports in the media 2 days ago highlighted an insurance company that has launched a product that links premiums to the health choices and behaviour of the insured person. Such products already exist elsewhere, and I believe will become increasingly available in Singapore henceforth. Companies and workers therefore have an added incentive in cost savings to make the most and the best of Active Aging.
This is the 4th ULive! Symposium that NTUC is holding. We are determined to use this and other platforms to increase the understanding and practice of active aging, so that older workers and citizens can live a good and happy life.
Thank you.
