Retirees Get One-Off Sum From Bank
December 18, 2009 by admin
Filed under News Bites
Maybank has become the first bank in Singapore to pledge a one-off payment to employees who cannot be rehired beyond retirement age. The bank also recently undertook to end the practice of slashing employees’ salaries when they turn 60, although this is allowed under the law.This new policy is the result of a set of tripartite proposals, between the Malaysian bank and the Singapore Bank Employees’ Union (SBEU) and the Singapore Bank Officers’ Association (SBOA), on the rehiring of workers beyond the legal retirement age of 62.
Maybank’s new undertakings under the one-off Employment Assistance Payment (EAP), and other key proposals in the draft re-employment guidelines, puts it ahead of about 30 unionised banks in Singapore.
Maybank Singapore’s human resource head, Wong Keng Fye, told reporters the new agreement sets out the formal procedure for re-hiring older workers. Re-employment is now done on an individual basis.
Under the agreement, which took effect yesterday, Maybank will provide pre-retirement counselling to employees one year before they turn 62, and inform them three months in advance whether they will be re-employed.
The bank will help those it cannot re-employ to look for job opportunities, on top of giving them the EAP, a one-off payment meant to help tide a worker over while he looks for another job.
The agreement applies to all Maybank employees, including senior management, even though only 400 of its 1,200 employees here are union members. About a fifth of its staff are over 50 and each year, around 12 turn 62.◊
