Source: Straits Times
Author: Sumiko Tan
New workplace legislation promises stronger safeguards, but ageing on the job still brings challenges.
Three months before Mr Francis Ng turned 63 in 2024, he received a letter from his employer titled "Health concerns".
In it, he was told he was being put on early retirement, and had one month's notice to leave the company.
Mr Ng, a production manager at a factory that makes kitchen counter tops, was flummoxed. What "health concerns" was his boss referring to?
The only thing he could think of was how, a few weeks earlier, he had been given five days of medical leave for heartburn.
He had been with the company for 18 years, though under a different management before. He says he was a diligent worker, showing up six days a week, and was known for his skill at driving a forklift.
When he raised the letter with his boss, he was met with remarks like "your eyes cannot see properly any more". That made him more furious. "'Are you a doctor?' I asked him. He kept quiet." Mr Ng told his employer that a recent polyclinic check-up had found nothing wrong with his eyesight.
He turned to the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) for help. After a month of negotiations, his employer agreed to give him an employment assistance payment of just under $10,000, to be paid in six instalments. He did not get his job back.
"I felt disappointed and very sad," he says of how he was treated. "It wasn't even a retrenchment with compensation but 'early...
The Western Australian government has issued a stern warning to the state’s solar industry over potentially misleading promotions and “false claims” about the soon-to-launch residential battery re...