Maximum age for work permit holders raised to 63, limit on employment period removed

SINGAPORE: Work permit holders will be allowed to work in Singapore longer. Manpower Minister Tan See Leng said on Thursday (March 6) that the rule setting the maximum employment period for all work permit holders will be lifted, allowing companies to keep older and more experienced workers.

The maximum age of employment for work permit holders will also be adjusted. It will be raised from 60 to 63, bringing it in line with the local retirement age, from July 1.

The age limit for new work permit applicants will also be raised to 61. Currently, it is 58 for Malaysians and 50 for non-Malaysians.

“With these changes, employers can retain experienced workers who are still able to contribute,” the minister said at the Committee of Supply (COS) debate in Parliament on Thursday.

Currently, work permit holders, with the exception of foreign domestic workers, can work in Singapore for 14 to 26 years, depending on their skills, sector of work, and country of origin.

This restriction will be lifted from July 1.

Dr Tan had noted that the limits sets on work pass holders meant the need to let go of them while they were still in the prime of their working years.

There were 843,400 work permit holders as of June 2024, an all-time high and 17 per cent higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Ministry of Manpower has also added the countries of Bhutan, Cambodia and Laos to the Non-Traditional Sources (NTS) Occupation List first introduced in September 2023 to give services and manufacturing employers additional sources for hiring non-professional, managerial, executive and technical (PMET) workers on work permits instead of S Passes.

The workers in these roles have previously only come from China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan.They must be paid a minimum salary of $2,00, which Dr Tan said would “not undermine efforts to uplift locals in these occupations.” They should also be limited to 8 per cent or less of the total number of employees in a company, excluding Employment Pass (EP) holders.

The Manpower Minister added, “We are actively reviewing our work permit framework to drive transformation, while nuancing it to support different needs as our workforce changes, and updates will be shared in due course.”

He also addressed concerns about foreign talent in Singapore, saying that removing a foreigner from a job does not equal getting one more job for a local.

“Without the access to foreigners, the company and its jobs may not even be in Singapore to begin with,” he said, adding, “We should never develop a ‘Singaporean only’ mentality, because this would deprive us of talent needed to anchor global businesses that benefit Singaporeans.” /TISG

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