OVER three million people went to the streets from Paris to Marseille, protesting that they should not work beyond 60.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to push the retirement age to 62 by 2018 so that the pension-scheme deficit can be financed.
He has refused other solutions to fund the deficit, such as increasing taxes or cutting pension payments, and is determined to push the retirement age from 60 to 62.
France is not alone on this retirement age issue. Much of Europe has to look into it sooner than later as it is tied to pension schemes.
Britain is even planning to cancel the law that requires compulsory retirement at 65 for men and 60 for women.
Closer to home, the retirement age for people in Thailand, Brunei and Indonesia is 60. In Singapore, the retirement age is 62 and by 2012, employers would be obligated to re-employ workers aged between 62 and 65, and later 67 and beyond.
The retirement age in Malaysia’s private sector is 55. It is not common for one to retire later. It does not matter if one has school going children, is financially prepared or not, mentally alert and physically healthy, when one hit’s his/her 55th birthday, you call it a day.
There are some companies that do re-hire, offer contract employment or even extensions, but the numbers are few.
Those in Malaysia’s civil service seem to have a better deal. They work till 58 and the labour unions are pushing for the retirement age to be 60. The banking sector recently revised the retirement age to 57, with some conditions.
According to World Bank data, the average life expectancy of a Malaysian is 74.4 years. So, isn’t 55 a bit too early for retirement?
We have nearly 20 years, provided we live that long, and the only source of income would be the Employees Provident Fund (that is if we did not use it to pay for a few homes along the way or use all the EFP money in the first three years of retirement).
I asked some people what they thought about retiring at 55. Here is what one person says:
“Scary thought, but 55 is too soon. 60 is a reasonable age to retire. Many people can be productive beyond 55. Enable them to support themselves, improve their income. Utilise their experience and expertise. Have a succession plan but do not push out the older ones, make them train the younger ones.”
A report this week said Malaysian employers would not agree to any government move to implement a blanket rise of the retirement age to 60 for the private sector. Their concern was over health and low productivity levels but not cost.
Frankly, it would be a fallacy for employers to think that people after 55 may be a burden in terms of big health bills and low productivity levels.
Going by what pro-tem chairman of the newly founded Foundation for Sustainable Retirement Datuk Dr Zainal Aznam Yusof said: “We have a large pool of knowledgable people; with vast experience in many fields and it would be a shame if we let this go to waste.”
Employers need to take a closer look at how they can help the rakyat instead of worrying about fat health bills and productivity issues.
The private sector should seriously consider pushing the retirement age to 60 with options for early retirement at 55.
In fact, a review of the entire retirement issue is needed by both the Government and the private sector. When our neighbours are not retiring its workforce at 55, why are we in a rush to retire them? We have a large pool of retirees who can still contribute but the age factor has forced them out of the system and the avenues to get back are limited.
Eventually, the move should be to let people decide when is a good age to retire and not force them out because of a rule.
Friday Reflections - By B.K. Sidhu
# Deputy news editor B.K. Sidhu wishes all Muslims Eid Mubarak.
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