97% of retiring Singaporeans offered re-employment

Virtually all Singaporeans who hit the retirement age of 62 are guaranteed an option for continued work due to the tight labour market.

Also, nearly eight in ten private establishments had implemented measures to allow their local employees to work beyond 62 in 2011, the Ministry of Manpower (MoM) found in its new 2011 Retirement and Re-employment Practices report, which surveyed 3,200 private establishments with at least 25 employees each.

"Amid the tight labour market and tripartite efforts at promoting re-employment, nearly all (97% or 11,100) the local employees retiring in 2011 were offered employment beyond 62. Most accepted the offer, forming slightly over nine in ten (92% or 10,600) of the retiring cohort. Nearly two-thirds (64%) continued working on their existing contracts while about three in ten (28%) were re-employed under a new contract, mostly with no change in their job scope (27%)," said MoM.

"Nearly eight in ten (79%) private establishments reported they had implemented measures to allow their local employees to work beyond 62 in 2011, up from 77% in 2010. These establishments employed a large majority or 88% of the local employees in the private sector, up from 85% in 2010," it said.

"The 79% of private establishments with measures allowing employment beyond 62 comprised 57% which allowed their employees to continue working on existing contracts and 22% which offered re-employment. Nevertheless, more locals were employed in establishments offering re-employment (50%) than in establishments allowing continuation on existing contracts (38%), as larger establishments were more likely to offer re-employment than smaller establishments," it added.

"Nearly nine in ten (89%) private establishments offering re-employment indicated 12 months as the minimum duration of the re-employment contracts. In line with tripartite guidelines, almost all (95%) reported that the re-employment contracts were renewable up till the age of 65, as long as the employee continued to meet the medical fitness and work performance requirements," it said further.

MoM added that more private establishments offering re-employment had a policy of engaging their retiring employees in re-employment consultation in 2011 (75%) than the year before (61%). This included 42% which would conduct the re-employment consultation at least 6 months before the employee reaches 62, in line with the tripartite guidelines, up from 31% in 2010.

"MoM added that nearly three in eight (36%) private establishments had local employees who turned 62 in the year ending June 2011, involving some 11,500 local employees. This was an increase from 32% and 9,900 local employees in 2010," it said