Over 1,100 firms benefited from scheme to help companies re-employ mature workers

15 January 2009
Source: CNA

SINGAPORE: More than 1,100 companies have benefited from the government's ADVANTAGE! scheme, which aims to help companies re-employ workers past the age of 62 years old.

Salleh Udi, a stable assistant above 70 years of age, accepted re-employment by the Singapore Polo Club and is on a renewable year-to-year contract.

He said: "As long as I'm healthy and the club needs my services, I will keep working."

The general manager of the Singapore Polo Club, Torrey Dorsey, said: "It's not a glamorous job -- it's hot, it's dirty, it requires long hours. That's not to say we don't employ younger workers, but I think it's such a niche area that it's not a job a lot of people aspire to do. Our older workers add great value. They have knowledge beyond a textbook."

One of the physically demanding aspects of this job is walking the horses three times around a track daily.

But the company has found a way around this.

Costing up to S$100,000, a mechanical horse walker was built to make the facilities more age-friendly. The Polo Club tapped on the government's ADVANTAGE! scheme to pay for up to 80 per cent of its cost.

More than 30 per cent of the Polo Club's total workforce are above 50 years old, and of these, almost half of the employees are retirees or about to reach retirement age.

The club provides consultation sessions to help workers who are due for retirement make the transition into re-employment.

Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said: "Although Singapore is facing a slowdown, the process of ageing will not slow down and we will continue to face the challenge of an ageing workforce and ageing population. Even younger workers that you have today will grow old one day. So you need to retain them."

Singapore plans to push up its job rate of those aged 55 to 64 from the current 57 per cent to 65 per cent by 2012.