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
