Retirement age bill in final stages

Malaysia - A bill to raise the retirement age in the private sector to 60 years is in its final stages of being drafted, Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said. He said there were "one or two issues" left in the Private Sector Retirement Age Bill that needed to be resolved.

"It will be looked into and fine tuned. Hopefully we can finish the draft before the next session of Parliament," he said after witnessing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Skills Development Department, Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) as well as the Malaysian Technology Association, here, yesterday.

Last year the government, in the 2012 Budget, said it wanted to raise the current retirement age of 55 as a Malaysian's life expectancy had increased to 75.

While the minimum mandatory retirement age under the new law is 60, there is an option to allow employees to continue working for several more years.