Singapore: Unions Track Employer Commitments to Rehiring Older Workers

The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) has established a four-tier framework to let unionized employers understand where they are in getting on track with respect to when Singapore's reemployment legislation kicks in come 2012. According to the NTUC, 433 out of the 1000 unionised companies have committed, at varying levels, with a total of 3910 older workers having been re-employed.

Under the NTUC's framework, a company can be categorized at on of four levels of commitment to reemployment:

• Level 1 refers to companies that are already reemploying older workers, but on an ad-hoc basis.
• Level 2 refers to companies that are already reemploying older workers and have a reemployment clause in their agreements with unions.
• Level 3 refers to companies that have a formalized HR policy on re-employment.
• Level 4 refers to companies that are pro-actively seeking out new initiatives to ensure that their re-employment efforts are sustainable and scalable.

Of the 433 companies committed to reemployment policies, 15% have in place a formalized HR policy, and the NTUC is working to encourage the other 85% to follow suit, so as to increase the proportion of companies at Levels 3 and 4.

Source: NTUC Press Release (May 13, 2008)