Retirement age at 60 for TNB employees - Najib

KUALA LUMPUR, -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak today announced that Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) is the first government-linked company to raise the retirement age from 56 to 60.

He said this was in accordance with the implementation of the Minimum Retirement Age Act 2012 passed by Parliament recently.

The prime minister also announced more good news for the TNB employees. He said the TNB board of directors and management had agreed to raise the employer's rate of contribution to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) for the 56-60 age period.

He also said that new employees of TNB would contribute to the Social Security Organisation (Socso) beginning Sept 1 this year.

Najib made the announcements when addressing an assembly of TNB employees at the TNB Sports Complex, here. The event was also followed live over a video telecast by almost 30,000 TNB employees throughout peninsular Malaysia and Sabah.

Najib said he hoped that all TNB employees would garner better benefits and be more motivated to discharge their duties.

"And, what was expressed by your representatives will be your firm commitment to work hard.

"As such, TNB will excel and in 60 years from now, it will achieve greater excellence," he said.

Najib said the challenge for TNB now was to fulfil the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) pertaining to supply of adequate electricity and energy at a high rate of reliability compared to the early stages where it had to supply power to small towns and the rural areas.

"When we talk of quality, it goes with reliability. This does not apply just for domestic consumers but for industrial users such as in the sophisticated electrical and electronic fields where a slight disruption can result in huge losses," he said.

Najib said he hoped that TNB would continue to grow and become more established through a well-planned human capital development programme.

On the appointment of Datuk Azman Mohd as the new CEO of TNB, Najib said he had fulfilled a pledge to TNB employees to appoint a home-grown talent to the post.

"TNB is an organisation whose excellence is beyond doubt. As such, when it came to a transition in the top management, I told their unions that if they had someone from within, I will appoint that person as the chief executive.

"In accordance with our slogan of "Promises Fulfilled", my pledge to the TNB employees has been fulfilled. We are proud of the home-grown talent of Datuk Azman who is qualified to be the CEO and President of TNB," he said.

Meanwhile, TNB Executives Association president Abdul Shukor Hassan said TNB employees welcomed today's announcement.

-- BERNAMA