Making a Pitch for Older Workers

When we enter a electronic store, do we approach the younger sales assistant, or the older and more experienced sales assistant?

Mr De Payva, president of the NTUC, and Mr Ong, its assistant secretary general were making a pitch to 20 managers to retain older workers as they have valuable experience.

This pitch was timely, amidst difficult times of unemployment. According to a research, most employers would rather hire younger employees then older ones. Many even fired older workers in order to find younger ones to replace them.

Yes, younger employees may seem more energetic and hardworking, but experience is definitely important because one effective worker can be better than three inexperienced workers. Keeping older workers can actually save money and improve overall performance, compared to hiring new younger staff.

It is actually quite ridiculous to fire someone just because he is old. It just like throwing time and hard work away training the staff. They have been groomed from young to old in the company and just when they have reached their prime age where they have the richest experience, are trained fully and can achieve maximum performance, they are being fired. Then , what is the use of staff training and grooming?

Age is not a factor. That was the main message the NTUC president tried to convey.

A new scheme was released three days ago, calling for companies to offer workers turning 62 continued employment. If they have no job to offer, they should offer a one-off-payment to help workers while they find a new job.

The guidelines will form the core of a law to be passed by 2010 for re-employment up to the age of 65 and later 67.

The pushing of retiring age to a later age seemed to be strongly prompted by Singapore's ageing population. Should workers retire at an early age, it would weigh heavy on the working population to support the increasing non-working aged.

However, a major problem Mr De Payva spotted was that employers would try to find all kinds of ways and excuses to "get rid" of the aging employees before they turn 62, so that they do not have to offer the one-off-payment.''

It seems that there are always loopholes in schemes the government releases, so it is vitally important for the government to explain why employees should follow with their plans ( in this case, because older workers have more experience ) This pitch by NTUC three days after the guidelines were released, is therefore definitely timely.