The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) calls for employers to accord older workers equal training participation to uplift employment prospects and company competitiveness.
This is a key recommendation from the NTUC #EveryWorkerMatters Conversations (#EWMC) campaign. More than 40,000 workers across different profiles were engaged to understand their work concerns and aspirations.
In January 2022, the Ministry of Manpower shared that each year, over 90 per cent1 of eligible private sector resident employees who wished to continue working were offered re- employment at age 62. (Note: retirement age is 63 with effect from 1 July 2022).
Notwithstanding this fact, it is important to note that 27 per cent of today’s resident labour force are workers over 55 years old2. By 2030, for every worker exiting the workforce, there will only be 0.7 local workers entering3. This means the ageing of the local workforce will accelerate. At the same time, business models, technologies and processes are changing rapidly.
Given this certainty, both companies and older workers must gear up so that the gains in older worker employment achieved over the past decade can be sustained.
1 Source: Ministry of Manpower, “0110 Written Answer by Minister for Manpower Dr Tan See Leng on Breakdown of Re-employed Employees Upon Reaching Statutory Retirement Age”, 11 January 2022 https://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/parliament-questions-and-replies/2022/0110-written-answer-by-minister-for- manpower-dr-tan-see-leng-on-re-employed-employees
2 Source: Ministry of Manpower, “Labour Force in Singapore 2022”. Pg 5, Para 2.8 https://stats.mom.gov.sg/iMAS_PdfLibrary/mrsd_2022LabourForce_survey_findings.pdf
3 Source: Kok Ping Soon, “Reimagining Productive Longevity,” Ethos, Issue 20 (2019): 6. Pg 10. https://file.go.gov.sg/ethos-issue-20.pdf
For companies to sustain competitiveness, they must ensure every worker, regardless of age, possesses the necessary knowledge and skills for the job. For workers to have reasonable and realistic prospect of working longer, they must have the skills needed by the company. Otherwise, the job-skill mismatch will lead to lose-lose outcomes for both sides. If such a scenario occurs, increasing the statutory retirement age and re-employment age ceiling will not increase employment of older workers and many more of them will face challenges with retirement adequacy.
Unequal Training Participation for Older Workers Presents a Threat to Both Older Workers and Employers
In a survey conducted by NTUC from January to February 2022 with 1,000 respondents, 92 per cent4 of those aged 55 and above (368 respondents) said that they are interested to attend training if offered the opportunity by the company (Refer to Annex A, Chart 1). However, 6 in 10 (63 per cent) among them felt that they have fewer training opportunities compared to younger workers in the company (Refer to Annex A, Chart 2). In a later survey conducted by NTUC from December 2022 to January 2023 with 1,000 respondents aged 20 and above, a decline in training participation rate with age is clearly observed5 (Refer to Annex A, Chart 3).
This disparity in training participation by age is troubling and will progressively undermine efforts to prolong voluntary work-years and shore up retirement adequacy through work earnings and savings.
NTUC’s Calls
NTUC therefore urgently calls on companies to implement Company Training Committees (CTCs) and ensure equal training opportunities for older workers be given due attention and impetus.
NTUC reiterates our call made last week at the CTC Symposium for protected training time for workers to attend training, and to ensure such support is also extended to older workers.
4 Source: NTUC Survey of Older Workers aged 40 and above (Jan–Feb 2022), selected dataset for respondents aged 55 and above, N=368
5 Source: NTUC Survey of Workers #1 (Dec 2022-Jan 2023), N=1,000
NTUC asks companies to press on with redesigning jobs to be age-universal and utilise the full range of help and support available from NTUC’s Training & Placement Ecosystem and the numerous Government grant programmes to subsidise consultancy and implementation.
Other Older Worker-related Topics Surfaced in #EWMC Engagements
Other areas surfaced during the #EWMC engagements with older workers included strengthening retirement adequacy especially of lower income older workers and the development of additional work areas such as micro-jobs at local or community level. These areas require deep and careful study and assessment.
NTUC commends the Government on the recent announcement of the Majulah Package and will continue to work with tripartite partners on policy and programme enhancements to better support our older workforce in these areas in due course.
Visit to Polar Puffs & Cakes Production Facility
NTUC Deputy Secretary-General Heng Chee How visited the Polar Puffs & Cakes production facility whereby he engaged workers of the company, some of whom have worked with the company for decades.
Polar Puffs & Cakes (Polar) is a unionised company under the Food, Drinks And Allied Workers Union and has formed a Company Training Committee with the Union which covers its workforce of about 380.
The company had decided not to have a retirement age and about 10% of its workforce are now above 63 years old. The number and percentage of older employees will grow each year. To enable its employees, especially older employees, to work effectively and productively, Polar adopts an age-neutral, inclusive human resource and training policy.
Recognising that older employees may have different training requirements, the company designs and adapts its training programmes to ensure effective training outcomes. This includes, among others, Chinese translations for manuals and e-learning modules and an adjusted pace of training for older workers at their workstations in the production facility.
Dr Chan Kok Yew, Executive Director of Polar shared, “Polar Puffs and Cakes values the experience and potential of all our employees, regardless of age. We are committed to providing equal opportunities for all our employees, including our older workers. We invest in training and development programmes that cater to the diverse needs of our workforce especially our older employees – the programmes are designed to help all of them acquire new skills, stay current in their fields and adapt to changing job requirements.”
NTUC Deputy Secretary-General (DSG) Heng Chee How said, “Given our rapidly ageing local workforce and our clear intent to enable longer voluntary working years, we must implement practical measures promptly to secure the desired outcome. We have already set up a timetable to raise statutory retirement age and re-employment ages till end of this decade to 65 and 70 respectively. We must now tackle the clear shortfall in training and skills-building participation experienced by older workers to close the capacity gap. Both companies and older workers must understand where their core interests lie and coincide, put in the effort, and adjust. We either win this together, or no one wins.”
DSG Heng added, “Today's visit to Polar Puffs & Cakes production facility is an example of how companies can effectively implement inclusive training programmes for older workers and in turn, have an engaged and high performing workforce comprising both younger and older employees. It also shows how unionised companies like Polar are benefiting from NTUC’s Company Training Committee (CTC) initiative. I strongly urge companies to form CTC with our unions or NTUC, to provide structured training for workers of all ages and ensure that our older workers are not left out of employment and their companies are not left behind the competition.”
