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Oral Answer by Mr Sam Tan, Minister of State for Manpower, to Parliamentary Question on re-employment of female workers

Employment practices

Notice paper no. 426 of 2016 for the sitting on or after 09 November 2016

Question no. 725 for oral answer

MP: Ms K Thanaletchimi

To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) what is the current percentage of re-employment of female workers who have reached the age of (i) 62 years and (ii) 65 years; and (b) whether the Ministry will consider strategies to improve the employment of females workers beyond 62 years of age in light of females having a longer lifespan.

Answer
  1. The Ministry of Manpower collects re-employment data regardless of their gender. In 2015, over 98% of local employees who wished to continue working were offered re-employment upon reaching the ages of 62 and 65. It shows that the re-employment rates for male and female older workers were both high.
  2. The Government will continue to help older workers work for as long as they are willing and able. First, we will raise the re-employment age from 65 to 67 years old by 1 July 2017. We also support employers with Special Employment Credit of up to 11% of wage offset when they employ workers aged 65 and above. 
  3. Second, we seek to improve the quality of employment for our older workers. We fund companies to implement age-friendly workplace practices through WorkPro. Employers can also make free use of the Job Redesign Toolkit jointly developed by SNEF and NTUC, and sign up for age management courses under the Age Management@Workplace programme. We also support and promote public education efforts through campaigns such as the ‘Ability is Ageless’ run by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair & Progressive Employment Practices.