THE labour movement wants to see more women and mature workers getting into the workforce.
Labour chief Lim Swee Say said with unemployment at a low of 2.6 per cent and a growing demand for workers, more can be done to improve the employment rate of Singaporeans.
In his May Day message yesterday, his first as NTUC secretary-general, he said both groups deserve special attention.
'To succeed in raising employment rates and the effective retirement age, we will need to restructure our workplace to be more family-friendly and age-friendly,' he said as he outlined challenges workers face today.
Mr Lim said that healthy economic growth and the prospect of more jobs provided an 'excellent opportunity' to deal with these challenges.
These include the widening income gap, reliance on low-wage and unskilled workers, re-employment of older workers and retirees, and getting workers into new growth sectors.
'The labour movement has set its sights on working hand in hand with the tripartite partners to ensure there will be better employment for all Singaporeans.'
He noted that 450,000 jobs will be created over the next five years. With a tightening labour market, competition for workers will be keener.
Sectors that did not upgrade jobs, skills, productivity and pay will face a greater shortage. So it is important to transform low-skilled and low-productive jobs into 'more decent jobs with more decent pay'.
This would also ensure that today's low-wage worker can 'earn more decent wages tomorrow'.
Cases in point were 'back-to-work' women and workers aged 55 to 64 - groups that have been in the NTUC's sights for some time already.
It wants women - especially those whose children have grown up - to return to work so they can be financially independent, plan for their old age and contribute to the household income.
Around 54 per cent of all women of working age are in the workforce.
NTUC assistant secretary-general Halimah Yacob said recently that one way to raise the numbers was through flexible work arrangements.
The labour movement has also encouraged bosses to take on older workers or keep them on beyond the retirement age of 62.
The employment rate last year among those aged 55 to 59 was 60.6 per cent. It was 41.9 per cent for those aged 60 to 64.
A ministerial committee led by former labour chief Lim Boon Heng is aiming for a rate of 65 per cent for those aged 55 to 66.
In his message, Mr Lim Swee Say also said that with keener competition and the faster pace of economic restructuring, workers must be given help to retrain and adapt.
'If we do it right, we will be able to help more Singaporeans re-enter the workforce and stay in the workforce beyond the official retirement age of 62,' he said.
Mr G. Muthukumarasamy, general secretary of the Amalgamated Union of Public Daily Rated Workers, whose members are mainly mature and low-wage workers, noted that more attention had been given to such workers in the past two years and agreed that more can be done.
The union had been talking to employers to keep older workers on beyond 62, and to members about the importance of training as well as financial planning for their old age.
