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In forceAmended2020 Revised Edition
Contents

Act of Parliament

Retirement and Re-employment Act 1993

Feedback & supportMinimum retirement age and re-employment of employees

In plain English

Not legal advice

This Act sets a minimum retirement age for employees. It also provides for the re-employment of employees. The minister may exempt any person or class of persons from all or part of this Act, with or without conditions. The minister may revoke an exemption or change its conditions at any time.

Summary · Drafted with AI, checked against the official text on 30 Sep 2026.

Part 1

Preliminary

Official textFrom Singapore Statutes Online, unchanged

s 1Short title

This Act is the Retirement and Re-employment Act 1993.

(1)

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“agreed date” means a date specified for the purposes of section 7C(2)(a) in a consent form mentioned in section 7C(7);

“approved mediator” and “claim referral certificate” have the meanings given by section 2(1) of the Employment Claims Act 2016;

“collective agreement” has the meaning given by the Industrial Relations Act 1960;

“Commissioner” means the Commissioner for Labour appointed under section 3(1) of the Employment Act 1968;

“contract of service” means any agreement, whether in writing or oral, express or implied, whereby one person agrees to employ another as an employee and that other agrees to serve his or her employer as an employee;

“eligible employee” means an employee who satisfies the re‑employment eligibility criteria set out in section 7(1);

“employee” means a person who has entered into or works under a contract of service with an employer;

“employer” means a person who employs another person under a contract of service and includes —

(a)

the Government;

(b)

any statutory authority;

(c)

any duly authorised agent or manager of any employer; and

(d)

any person who owns or is carrying on, or for the time being responsible for the management or control of a profession, business, trade or work in which any employee is engaged;

“employment assistance payment” means such sum of money which is payable by an employer to an eligible employee under section 7C(1);

“Employment Claims Tribunal” means an Employment Claims Tribunal constituted under section 4 of the State Courts Act 1970;

“investigating officer” means any person appointed as an investigating officer under section 3;

“mediation request” has the meaning given by section 2(1) of the Employment Claims Act 2016;

“prescribed minimum retirement age”, in relation to an employee, means the prescribed minimum retirement age specified under section 4(1) that is applicable to the employee;

“prescribed re-employment age”, in relation to an employee, means the prescribed re-employment age specified under section 7A(11) that is applicable to the employee;

“re-employment” means the employment of an employee by the same employer on or after the date the employee attains the employee’s specified age;

“re‑employment contract” means a contract of service entered into between an eligible employee and an employer to re‑employ the eligible employee for the purposes of section 7A(1) or (3)(a)(i);

“re‑employment obligations” means an employer’s obligations to re‑employ an eligible employee in accordance with section 7A, failing which, to offer the eligible employee employment assistance payment in accordance with section 7C(1)(a);

“salary” has the meaning given by section 2(1) of the Employment Act 1968;

“specified age”, in relation to an employee, means the higher of the following ages applicable to the employee:

(a)

the employee’s prescribed minimum retirement age;

(b)

the retirement age stipulated in the employee’s contract of service;

“tripartite guidelines” means the guidelines relating to re‑employment issued by the Minister under section 11B.

(2)

For the purposes of this Act, an employee is treated as dismissed by his or her employer if —

(a)

the contract under which the employee is employed by the employer is terminated by the employer, whether it is so terminated by notice or without notice; or

(b)

the employer retires the employee, or requires or causes that employee to retire or resign on the ground of age.

(3)

In this Act, a person is regarded as attaining or having attained N years of age (where N is a positive integer) or other higher age on or after the Nth or other anniversary (as the case may be) of the date of his or her birth.

(1)

The Commissioner for Labour is the officer in charge of the general administration of this Act.

(2)

Any Deputy Commissioner for Labour, Principal Assistant Commissioner for Labour or Assistant Commissioner for Labour appointed under the Employment Act 1968 may, subject to such limitations as may be prescribed, perform all duties imposed and exercise all powers conferred on the Commissioner by this Act, and every duty so performed and power so exercised is deemed to have been duly performed and exercised by the Commissioner for the purpose of this Act.

(3)

The Minister may appoint such number of investigating officers and other officers as the Minister considers necessary or expedient for the purpose of this Act.

(4)

The Minister may make rules for the conduct of the duties of officers under this Act.

Part 2

Prescribed Minimum Retirement Age

Read on from Part 2

Part 3

Re-Employment of Eligible Employees

Read on from Part 3

Part 4

Remedies

Read on from Part 4

Part 5

General

Read on from Part 5