Little protection for older workers
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May 24, 2010 - ST Forum
Little protection for older workers
I REFER to last Thursday's letter, "Less than 3% of private firms cut older workers' wages", sent in jointly by the Singapore National Employers Federation, Ministry of Manpower and National Trades Union Congress.
Employers in Singapore have the flexibility to terminate an older worker for a variety of reasons, including restructuring and outsourcing. This has been practised quite often in the private and public sectors. There is little need for them to keep workers until age 60 to have their wages reduced under the Retirement Age Act. This probably accounts for the low percentage of employers exercising this wage cut.
I cite the case of a friend who has worked for 11 years in regional business development for a local insurance company. He was rated a good performer by the previous management. Recently, with a change of top management, he was asked to leave and was offered a compensation of only three months of salary.
He asked for my assistance on how to make an appeal to the Ministry of Manpower, as he still has a family and a sick elderly mother to support.
I hope that our tripartite partners will recognise this type of difficulty faced by many Singaporeans. The current employment practices offer little protection to workers, especially older ones, when the top management outsources the work to contractors to reduce their costs or replaces senior people with their own buddies.
Tan Kin Lian
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They want the elderly out of sight.
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They can't wait to get rid of the old in Singapore. Some smart alec want to dump the old to JB.
What about dumping the one and only old man who wastes a lot of Singaporeans' money?
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Originally posted by hasene:
They can't wait to get rid of the old in Singapore. Some smart alec want to dump the old to JB.
What about dumping the one and only old man who wastes a lot of Singaporeans' money?
may be two old men. One forecasting the other shakes hands.
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Originally posted by Clivebenss:
may be two old men. One forecasting the other shakes hands.
I can only think of one. I don't the other one is chinese or indian -
Originally posted by hasene:
I can only think of one. I don't the other one is chinese or indianyou answered.
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Originally posted by Clivebenss:
May 24, 2010 - ST Forum
Little protection for older workers
I REFER to last Thursday's letter, "Less than 3% of private firms cut older workers' wages", sent in jointly by the Singapore National Employers Federation, Ministry of Manpower and National Trades Union Congress.
Employers in Singapore have the flexibility to terminate an older worker for a variety of reasons, including restructuring and outsourcing. This has been practised quite often in the private and public sectors. There is little need for them to keep workers until age 60 to have their wages reduced under the Retirement Age Act. This probably accounts for the low percentage of employers exercising this wage cut.
I cite the case of a friend who has worked for 11 years in regional business development for a local insurance company. He was rated a good performer by the previous management. Recently, with a change of top management, he was asked to leave and was offered a compensation of only three months of salary.
He asked for my assistance on how to make an appeal to the Ministry of Manpower, as he still has a family and a sick elderly mother to support.
I hope that our tripartite partners will recognise this type of difficulty faced by many Singaporeans. The current employment practices offer little protection to workers, especially older ones, when the top management outsources the work to contractors to reduce their costs or replaces senior people with their own buddies.
Tan Kin Lian
Tan Kin Lian, former CEO NTUC Life Income