Responsible re-employment

In accordance with the Retirement and Re-employment Act (RRA), from 1 July 2026, the minimum retirement age is 64 years. Employers are not allowed to dismiss any employee based on an employee’s age.

Employers must offer re-employment to eligible employees who turn 64, up to age 69, to continue their employment in the organisation. The re-employment age was raised from 68 to 69 from 1 July 2026 to help older workers who wish to continue working as long as they are willing and able to.

The retirement and re-employment ages are:

Eligibility

You are eligible for re-employment if you:

• Are a Singapore citizen or Singapore permanent resident.
• Have served your current employer for at least 2 years before turning 64 for employees hired at age 55 and above.
• Have satisfactory work performance, as assessed by the employer.
• Are medically fit to continue working.

If you are eligible for re-employment but your employer is unable to offer you a position, then your employer must:

• Transfer the re-employment obligation to another employer, with your agreement, OR
• Offer you a one-off Employment Assistance Payment (EAP).

Contract

Your re-employment contract should be for at least 1 year, renewable every year up to maximum re-employment age of 69.

The first initial contract of re-employment should start on the same day you reach the minimum retirement age of 64.

Salary and benefits

Your salary may be adjusted based on reasonable factors such as new duties or responsibilities. You should negotiate these changes with your employer when you finalise your new contract. A good reference is the Tripartite Guidelines on Re-employment of Older Employees.

Negotiating a re-employment contract

Keep the following in mind when negotiating the terms of a re-employment contract.

Re-employment by another employer

If your employer is unable to re-employ you, your employer can transfer re-employment obligations to another employer upon meeting these two conditions:

• The new employer must agree to take over the prevailing re-employment obligations to you from your present employer, AND
• You must agree to the re-employment offer by the new employer.

You are not obliged to accept a re-employment offer by the new employer, and will be entitled to an Employment Assistance Payment (EAP) from your present employer should you choose to turn down the offer.

You can take a look at this sample consent form for re-employment by another employer.

Employment Assistance Payment (EAP)

If your employer has considered all available re-employment options within the organisation and is still unable to identify a suitable job for you, the company may offer you an Employment Assistance Payment (EAP).

The EAP is:

• Offered only after a thorough review, as a last resort.
• Meant to help you tide over a period of time while you seek alternative employment.
• A one-off payment equivalent to 3.5 months’ salary, subject to a minimum of $6,250 and a maximum of $14,750.

Part-time re-employment

As an employer, you should adhere to prevailing principles on changes to wages, medical and other benefits for your employees who are re-employed on a part-time basis. You can tap on the Part-time Re-employment Grant (PTRG) to do so.

For re-employment of your part-time employees, the maximum and minimum EAP amounts could be pro-rated based on the number of hours worked per week, relative to a full-time employee.

Higher internal retirement and re-employment ages than statutory requirements

As an employer, you are encouraged to raise your internal retirement and re-employment ages above the statutory requirements.

These ages should be clearly documented in your relevant employment documents. You should also include avenues where your employees can seek help from if there are disputes.

Structured career planning

As an employer, you are encouraged to adopt a forward-looking approach in guiding your employees on career development, including the adoption of structured career planning for employees aged 45 years old and above.

The Structured Career Planning Guidebook developed by the Singapore National Employers Federation provides resources to guide you in conducting regular career conversations with your employees.

You will benefit through a deeper understanding of your employees’ future plans, and areas for development. They can build confidence in planning their careers, enhancing their skills and preparing for career changes, re-employment and eventual retirement.

Job redesign

As an employer, you should facilitate the re-employment of older workers by building more age-friendly workplaces.

You are encouraged to use job redesign to make organisation-wide and system-levels changes. This will increase the number of older workers who can perform the job, and increase the age at which your workers can do a job. You can tap on the Enterprise Workforce Transformation Package to do so.

Medical benefits

As an employer, you should restructure existing medical benefits, and provide additional MediSave contributions or other flexible benefits. These can be used to pay for your employee’s MediShield Life or Integrated Shield Plan premiums (if applicable).

This helps you manage healthcare costs by providing stability and predictability, and builds up Medisave Accounts and accrue medical benefits post-employment for your employees.

Disputes

You should work together with your employer (or union, if applicable) to resolve any differences amicably.

You can also approach the Commissioner for Labour (COL) or Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) for help in the following situations: