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Drivers of age-friendly human resource policies and practices : the case of Singapore's ageing workforce
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Mustafa-Devilly, Norazrina Binte Muhammad (2019) Drivers of age-friendly human resource policies and practices : the case of Singapore's ageing workforce. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3491987~S15
Abstract
This research examines the issues surrounding equality and diversity relating to older workers in Singapore and the ways in which employers have responded to the demographic change in the workforce. With a lack of research in the area of equality and diversity in Singapore’s context, this research adopted Dickens’ three-pronged approach to assess the efficacy of existing efforts namely, through the business case, the involvement of trade unions and legislation. Due to its ageing workforce, tripartite committees involving representatives from the state, labour and capital were established to address issues pertaining to the employment of older workers. Subsequently, various initiatives were introduced to promote the business case for hiring and retaining older workers, and to encourage employers to adopt non-discriminatory employment practices. Grants and funding were also available to incentivise employers to adopt age-friendly HR policies and practices by subsidising the costs of their implementation.
Interviews conducted with tripartite partners and trade unions provided an understanding of the consensus-based approach that Singapore had adopted. Given Singapore’s welfare model, where there is minimal assistance provided by the state and where there are pragmatic values such as individual responsibility and self-reliance, this meant that older workers needed to be able to support themselves financially. Subsequently, trade unions pushed for an increase in the retirement age, which resulted in the replacement of the Retirement Age Act 1993 with the Retirement and Re-employment Act 2012 (RAR Act 2012). Given that older workers have been impacted by these changes, it was necessary to include their ‘voice’ in this research so as to understand the implications of the changes in policies. Employers were then interviewed to explore the extent to which they have responded to these changes by adopting age-friendly human-resource policies and practices.
Findings relating to the business case as a driver for equality showed that although there were employers that had implemented age-friendly HR practices to address the needs of older workers, these were contingent on business needs. This is one of the main criticisms associated with reliance on the business case. The second prong looks at trade unions’ involvement and their impact was more evident on a national level in terms of influencing policies and administrating initiatives and funding schemes. At the organisational level, trade unions’ reach was limited to unionised employers. In this instance, they were able to encourage employers to participate in voluntary-based initiatives and to tap on available funding schemes. However, trade unions’ impact was also limited due to a lack of authority to audit and monitor employers’ policies and practices.
Legislation in the form of the RAR Act 2012 makes up the third prong. The Act obligates employers to re-employ older workers up to the age of 67 as of 2018. However, this only extends to those in employment and who satisfy the health and work performance eligibility criteria. Findings showed that employers tend to adopt a compliance-based approach and were only needed to do minimal change to their employment practices in order to show compliance. For employers that went beyond the terms specified in the legislation, this was due to other drivers, such as the involvement of trade unions and/or to the business case for hiring and retaining older workers. In this instance, this affirmed the merits of Dickens’ three-pronged approach to engendering equality.
Singapore’s consensus-based tripartite approach represented a viable platform in terms of policy-making and in putting in place initiatives to engage employers. However, despite the potential of tripartism as a platform to operationalise the three prongs to drive changes to employment practices, findings showed that Singapore’s neo-liberal tendencies weakened the overall impact of the three-pronged approach.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HF Commerce |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Age and employment -- Singapore, Personnel management -- Singapore, Older people -- Employment -- Singapore | ||||
Official Date: | May 2019 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Warwick Business School | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Hoque, Kim, 1970- ; Dean, Deborah, 1963- | ||||
Format of File: | |||||
Extent: | xv, 386 leaves : illustrations (some colour) | ||||
Language: | eng |
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