\n<\/p>\n
Courts also weigh the procedure of the re-employment exercise, including the timing of the offer and how much time the employee was given to consider it, lawyers said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In this case, the magistrate took issue with how the company conducted the exercise, ruling that it had not reasonably engaged or consulted the claimant.<\/p>\n
The man turned 63 in March 2025, Singapore\u2019s statutory retirement age at the time, and the company made no move on re-employment beforehand. He emailed about his re-employment on Jun 8, and the company responded two days later with an offer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He raised concerns about the terms of the contract, including the six-month period and lower salary, and asked for more time to consider the offer while he was on medical leave.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The company said its deadline of Jun 17 was non-negotiable. The man then rejected the offer and the company terminated his employment the next day.<\/p>\n
Lawyers said companies should engage workers on re-employment at least six months before retirement, and extend an offer at least three months out, so employees do not face undue pressure.<\/p>\n
Many companies simply fail to track when employees reach retirement age, said Ms Ong, so discussions often start only once retirement is imminent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Because of that, when they realise, they start rushing through the discussions and they feel like they need to sort this out very quickly,” she said. “The engagement with the employee starts being very rushed, very hurried. And then the employee gets upset because they don’t understand what’s going on or they feel like they’re not being heard.”<\/p>\n
Starting discussions early helps ensure workers do not “go away feeling like this is just a box-ticking exercise”, Ms Ong said. Where a company has already decided not to retain an employee, any offer made can end up “for show” \u2013 made with little explanation or room for discussion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Then the employee will get upset because they see it as being very disrespectful of someone who has probably worked there for a very long time,” she said, adding that such queries mostly come from long-term employees.<\/p>\n
While re-employment obligations rest with the company, employees can plan ahead for the later stages of their career, lawyers said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Kelvin Tan, co-head of Drew and Napier’s employment practice, said workers can prepare by training for new roles and can initiate re-employment discussions from six months or more before retirement, with union support where applicable.<\/p>\n
Since an employment contract continues automatically if no action is taken, raising the matter early can be a double-edged sword, said Simmons and Simmons\u2019 Mr Ngo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The question in an employee’s mind is: are you comfortable leaving it as is until your employer does something, or would you rather have clarity upfront?”<\/p>\n
Employees in a dispute have three options, Mr Ngo said: approaching MOM, approaching a union, or filing a claim through the Employment Claims Tribunals. MOM’s commissioner for labour may consult both parties or appoint a mediator, and the manpower minister can also direct re-employment or compensation.<\/p>\n
The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) said it assisted the worker in this case after he raised concerns about his employer’s re-employment offer.<\/p>\n
As the company was not unionised, a case officer assessed it as a potential retirement and re-employment dispute and advised him on his options. He first tried NTUC’s voluntary mediation; when that failed, the case was escalated to the Employment Claims Tribunals.<\/p>\n
To bring a claim to the tribunal, workers must first go through mandatory mediation with the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management, obtain a referral if unresolved, then file a claim through the State Courts system.<\/p>\n
NTUC said it has seen more disputes related to retirement and re-employment in the past year, although cases involving retirement without notice or proper payment remain uncommon.<\/p>\n
The Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management arm that works with NTUC saw three such cases in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As of Jul 1, Singapore’s retirement and re-employment ages have been raised to 64 and 69 respectively, and will rise again to 65 and 70 by 2030.<\/p>\n
“As more workers choose to remain in employment later in life, it is common that workers may seek clarification or assistance to better understand their rights and entitlements,” NTUC assistant secretary-general Patrick Tay said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs these changes are implemented, we hope that more workers will become familiar with their rights and the protections available to them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Tay also stressed that companies should conduct re-employment and retirement exercises fairly and sensitively, with meaningful engagement with the worker involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cRe-employment should not be treated as a procedural exercise. It should be approached as an opportunity to retain experienced workers who are willing and able to continue contributing,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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How should the re-employment exercise be conducted? Courts also weigh the procedure of the re-employment exercise, including the timing of the offer and how much…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--DDoNfa9t--\/c_crop,h_841,w_1495,x_1,y_40\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/fl_relative,g_south_east,l_mediacorp:cna:watermark:2021-08:cna,w_0.1\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2022\/01\/14\/cal_0056.jpg?itok=lZbIORtz","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1733,15,2725,1339,7506,366,1025,1692],"class_list":["post-74048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-claim","tag-cna","tag-company","tag-explains","tag-retire","tag-senior","tag-win","tag-worker","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/74049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}