Good morning, and welcome to another initiative of the Singapore Tripartism Forum

1. STF has made good progress

1.1 Since its inception in January this year, the Singapore Tripartism Forum has gained strength and traction.  Two well-attended national-level seminars have been held to discuss employment issues facing workers in general, and mature olders in particular.  The STF also held dialogues with various chambers of commerce to more directly explain and communicate the workings of Singapore’s tripartism model to CEOs and other key business decision-makers.
 
1.2 We must continue to build on the momentum of these early efforts, and fully tap the power and potential of tripartism to address critical issues of concern to all 3 parties.  It is only in taking practical action together to solve problems that the value and reality of tripartism can be best understood and reinforced.  Today’s gathering presents us such an opportunity.

1.3 Longer life expectancy and thus the need to work longer

2.1 One big challenge that Singapore has to tackle is the impact of a population that is living longer.  In 1955, life expectancy at birth in Singapore was 61 years.  In 1965, it was 65 years.  Today, life expectancy at birth in Singapore is 80.  There is no doubt that the average Singaporean is living longer as time goes by.

2.2 When we live longer, we will need more money to pay for the more years of life.  This money must come from somewhere.  Unless we are born rich, otherwise, we will have to work for it.  Most workers understand this.  So we should move the discussion beyond the “why you need to work longer” stage to the “how can you work longer” stage. 

2.3 Assuming workers do want to continue to work for as long as possible, would the demand for their labour automatically be there?  I think we are not at that ideal position yet.  Today, our economy is robust, and the unemployment rate has fallen to 1.7%.  Employers from various sectors are reporting manpower shortages, especially in skilled areas.  Yet, while this is so, it is also still true that our employment rates for older workers beyond the age of 50 and for women beyond the age of 30 lags those of other developed countries, even though statistics indicate significant improvements from 2004 onwards. (In 2006, the employment rates for those aged 55-59 and 60-64 rose to 60.6% and to 41.9% from 55.9% and 33.6% in 2004 respectively). Workers reaching retirement age still worry whether they can work on, even if in different capacities and pay levels. 

2.3 Commitment of the Labour Movement to Encourage Age-Friendly Practices

4.1 At the National Day Rally this year, the Prime Minister announced that the Government will enact re-employment legislation that starts taking effect from in 2012.  This will require employers to offer re-employment to workers reaching retirement age of 62.  In tandem with that, the draw-down age for the CPF Minimum Sum will be progressively pushed back.

4.2     In the ensuing Parliamentary debate on this, I had argued that to achieve this improvement in employment rate and re-employment rate for mature workers on a sustained basis, we need to monitor both the re-employment rate at retirement age, as well as the employment rate of mature workers a decade before they reach retirement age.  Only by working on both the employment and re-employment rates together can we ensure that the Singaporean workers will stand the best chance of continued employment for as long as possible, to earn the income needed to supply their non-working years.  And then, as we make progress in these areas, to amass the knowledge of how employers, unions and workers in different trades and industries have arrived at practical, acceptable and sustainable arrangements.  The sharing of these examples and arrangements will spur other employers to be more proactive, and not wait for challenges to solve themselves.

4.2 NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say holds a similar view -  that it is important to monitor and work on both employment and re-employment of mature workers simultaneously.  That was why he had in September this year called on companies to disclose their workforces’ age distribution profile. Such disclosure serves to enable the company to consciously take stock of its position, and see in what ways it can invest more in age-friendly sustainable employment practices. 

4.3 The NTUC family has decided to walk our talk, and take the lead to disclose our employees’ age profile on our website.   As of 31 October 2007, the NTUC family has a total of 10,521 employees and their average age is 42 years old.  Taking a comparison to national average figures, the NTUC family has a higher proportion (45.7%) of employees within the age range of 45 to 59.  Specifically, the NTUC family employs a higher percentage of workers within the age band of 45 to 49 compared to national average figures, 16.9% versus 14% respectively.  For workers aged between 50 to 54, it is 17.5% for the NTUC family compared to 11% nationally.  For workers aged between 55 to 59, the NTUC family again employs a higher proportion (11.3%) of these workers compared to the national average of 8%.  On the whole, about 64% of the NTUC family workforce is above 40 years old, and about 4% above the age of 62. 

4.4 In making this disclose voluntarily, we are not saying that we have the ideal or best possible age distribution.  This disclosure has enabled us to systematically ascertain and monitor the profile, and to take deliberate action to further improve where appropriate. 

5. Call for other employers to adopt disclosure of their employee age profile

5.1 By taking the lead, the labour movement hopes and would like to urge more companies, especially the bigger ones, to also disclose and share their employees’ age profile.  With more information becoming available, more concrete and proactive steps can be taken by companies, unions, workers and the government between now and 2012 to raise employment and re-employment rates further. 

5.2 I hope that the forum today will give us the chance to discuss this and other related topics, so that working together in tripartism, we can remain competitive as an economy and inclusive as a society for a long, long time to come. 

Thank you.