Older workers can work with pride and dignity

I met a policyholder. She said that her family is considering to migrate from Singapore. She is worried about the future for the elderly. She is quite sorry to see older workers work in the food centers as cleaners for a low pay. She felt that, after working for a lifetime, the older workers should not have to continue to work to make a living.

I told her this story, to give a different perspective.

When I was in Hokkaido, Japan last week, I stayed at a Japanese ryokan, ie Japanese styled hotel.

A high proportion of the workers were elderly, in the 60s or olders. They carried the luggage and cleaned the hotel room. The porter who carried my two large suitcases to my room must be much older than me! They work with pride and dignity.

In Japan, the workers are paid well, even if they do manual work. This makes them proud of their work. They do not feel that the work is demeaning.

I hope that, in Singapore, we can find a way to give better pay to our lower level workers. This will allow them to work with pride. It will also change the perception of the general public towards people doing these types of work.