Techblog
New Grant to Ease Re-employment Legislation for SME's
As part of its effort to help older employees remain economically productive, the Government has enacted re-employment legislation on January 1, 2012 to enable more people to continue working beyond the current statutory retirement age of 62, up to 65 in the first instance and subsequently, up to 67.
The Retirement & Re-employment Act (RRA) will require employers to re-employ eligible employees who attain the statutory minimum retirement age of 62 years old or contractual retirement age (whichever is higher).
To help small and medium businesses cope with this new legislation, they can tap on S$10,000 from the Capability Development Grant to defray some of the costs incurred in implementing a HR system to support re-employment.
Specially designed for SME's, the grant is part of an initiative developed by Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) in partnership with the Tripartite Partners to help companies to put in place HR systems to facilitate practices in preparation for the Re-employment Legislation.
Funding Support
Eligible companies will receive funding on three main components to implement a sustainable Re-employment system.
A Programme on Acquiring Skills & Competencies
Eligible companies will pay a subsidised fee of S$347.50 (inclusive of prevailing GST of S$87.50) and send their HR or supervisory staff to attend PREPARE™ - a 2-day workshop to acquire skills and competencies on Re-employment.
B Installation of E-Performance Appraisal System
After completing the programme, the company will be provided with an e-performance appraisal system to facilitate re-employment.
C Company's effort in preparing for re-employment
Companies that are subsequently audited to have fulfilled the full deliverables within 2 months will receive the S$10,000 Grant, S$6,000 for the developed e-appraisal system and S$4,000 in cash to defray efforts in preparing for re-employment.
Eligibility Criteria
You may apply for the Grant if your company meets the following criteria:
- Registered or incorporated in Singapore;
- At least 30% of the shareholding is local;
- Minimum of 5 employees with CPF contributions; and
- Annual sales turnover of not more than S$100 million OR Employment size not exceeding 200 employees.
Companies that have previously received any form of funding support under the previous ADVANTAGE! scheme or have attended PREPARE™ before 1 April 2010 are not eligible.
For more information, please click here