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Sep 4, 2010
Past 62, you take the job you can do
In an e-mail interview with Insight, MM Lee Kuan Yew elaborates on his views on work and retirement
I do not mean just metaphorically. As long as people are productive, however old they are, if they have something to do, it is better to semi-retire. If they refuse a job, that is up to them. Employment after retirement age has to be for lower pay and lighter work. How much is a matter which has to be decided in accordance with the requirements of the job they are doing and their physical or mental alertness.This is too radical a change in one step. I have persuaded the Prime Minister and my Cabinet colleagues to introduce re-employment in gradual steps. First, from 62 to 65, and then to 67. After that, case by case for employer and employee.
It should apply to the entire workforce, not just to top-tier talent or middle management and professional ranks. If a man is physically fit and can still do his work, he should be allowed to do so.If he cannot do hard physical work, then find him a job in the service and leisure industries, lighter work which he can do but keeps him occupied and earning a living. So his CPF (Central Provident Fund) and other savings will not be the only money he will have.
The new British government plans to phase out its default retirement age of 65. According to a White Paper, an employer can fire someone on the basis of age only after the employee is administered a ‘capability test’ and fails it. Businesses complain of administrative costs, but older workers welcome it. Is this feasible in Singapore?
Do you see the Civil Service taking the lead in re-employment? Would it impinge on the Public Sector Leadership (PSL) scheme, which places limits on how long top civil servants can serve in key posts? At more junior levels, how would the Civil Service ensure it does not become bloated? Should employment be on the basis of term contracts rather than permanent?
It does not mean employers are free to hire and fire just because there is no official retirement age.
You said that working will keep people ‘interested and engaged in life’ into their old age. Does this apply only to the well-educated, high-income executives? What about the lower-skilled and lower-wage elderly? They may want to work past retirement age out of necessity rather than to keep interested and engaged.
There are jobs where the specialised nature and physical demands require an age cut-off, for example, pilots, divers, policemen, army officers. If there is no retirement age, how can workers in such jobs be redeployed?
Many older workers want to retire because they would rather not suffer the ‘humiliation’ of getting less pay or having to follow the orders of those younger than them. Is this a ‘mindset’ that can be remedied?
Those who feel humiliated or get less pay because they are demoted and have to follow the orders of younger men, can move to some other new sector where the young officers are not their former subordinates.When you reach retirement age, you have to take the job that you can do. I moved from prime minister to senior minister under prime minister Goh Chok Tong. Now I am Minister Mentor under, first, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and, second, Senior Minister Goh. As long as I am fit, if the next prime minister wants to retain me because I am still capable, I am prepared to go down in status. It makes little difference to me and my amour propre.
Some Singaporeans disagree with your view that they should not retire but keep on working. They argue that the end of life is a happy retirement, not more work.