KF Seetoh took to social media on Thursday (Jun 9) to talk about the dire labour situation that was affecting many SMEs and small businesses in the Food & Beverage (F&B) industry.
He added that it was almost too late to help them, as many were closing down or barely closing. Quoting a Straits Times article, Mr Seetoh wrote: “prognosis is not good especially for the retail, F&B, services and frontline businesses. No Singaporean is really keen to work for you, even if they are jobless. It’s too tough”. The founder of Makansutra and advocate for all things hawker said that in the past eight years, all the employers he knows who are in the retail, F&B, service and frontline industries have faced employment issues and a lack of manpower.
“In truth, these jobs are great for people in the region, who naturally has a service culture in their professional DNA. But they are not allowed to be hired because it seem to be reserved for Singaporeans, who shun such fair paying jobs. Think, it’s a quota of up to 9 to 1 (you need as many as 3-9 Singaporeans or PRs in your company before you qualify for 1 foreigner, depending on which country and industry, and no-guarantee)”, Mr Seetoh wrote.
He continued: “Where oh where on earth can anyone find 5- 9 Singaporeans willing to work in F&B , give you footrubs to ease your stressful Singapore work week, clean factories and offices, repair or install our aircon system, sweep the Marina Bay area after National Day or New Year’s Eve, repair your car, paint your house, or serve some of these charmed Singaporeans and Shenton Way foreign talents”.
Mr Seetoh called foreigners who were already in Singapore “opportunist and at worst, job hopping mercenaries” without any loyalty or dedication.
He cited the example of a noodle shop owner who had his Singaporean chefs threaten to walk out in the middle of service, knowing that the boss had no other manpower to rely on such short notice. They threatened to walk away if he did not give them a pay raise. The boss had to then put on an apron and continue service, without them.
Mr Seetoh noted that for hawkers in public hawker centres, things were worse as they were not allowed to hire foreigners at all. “Many hawkers and hirers in the SME, especially the F&B industry, are burying their head in fear that they cannot get enough staff to take advantage of the impending post -covid flood of business from locals and tourist alike”, Mr Seetoh wrote.
After the Manpower Ministry asked the F&B industry to hire social-distancing ambassadors who were laid-off, Mr Seetoh added that the 15,000 or so of them “If they wanted, they would have snapped up those thousands of F&B jobs available since last year, by now”.
Referring to SMEs and small businesses in the F&B industry, Mr Seetoh urged: “So, please help govern their needs. They look to you for help and leadership on this. If you can’t visualise this problem, get an independent team to advise. For starters, ringfence this industry like how you did for the construction space. Discard that quota rule here, it’s futile. And to those Singaporeans who still need these service jobs, there are more than enough for you too”. /TISG