About 1,300 senior public officers retiring at the age of 62 years in Singapore were rehired in 2016, said Public Service Division while releasing the figures. This is another humanitarian gesture of the Singaporean government which took the decision even before the mandatory legislation where re-employment age has been raised from 65 to 67 years from July onwards.
The Public Service Division has also stated that the number of public servants above the age of 65 has increased to about 3000, which is about thrice more than in 2014.
It also said that about nine in 10 public servants who turned 62 and who wanted to carry on working after their retirement were offered re-employment during the period from July 2011 until the end of last year.
The re-employment age in Singapore will be raised from 65 to 67 from July onwards and employers will no longer have the option to cut employees’ wages at the age of 60. Under the amendments made to the Retirement and Re-employment Act that were debated and passed in Parliament in January this year, employers can allow consenting, eligible employees to be re-hired by another employer.
The Public Service Division had already signalled that it was taking the lead in this area, as it formally offered re-employment to eligible officers until they are 67 years old. It had also studied the recommendations made by the Tripartite Committee on Employability of Older Workers on extending the re-employment age, and in making the decision to extend this age by two years, it had also consulted the ministries, statutory boards and public sector unions.
