Singapore — Lawyer and opposition leader Lim Tean has spoken up about recruiting youths for the cleaning industry.
At the start of his post, Mr Lim says “PAP wants a younger workforce for the cleaning industry but is happy for foreign Indians to do IT jobs”
He mentions that NTUC Assistant Director-General and Chairman of the TCC Zainal Sapari who is a former PAP Member of Parliament had said “We want to attract a younger workforce into this industry. We want this to be a possible career that they can consider, compared to going into the gig economy.”
Mr Lim then says that he thinks NTUC and the PAP should consider the fact that youths in the workforce can be trained instead to take up IT jobs which are currently and will be given to foreign labour instead.
He adds that many of the foreigners are Indians, leading the Times of India to dub it ‘”a blessing” for India and her people.’
He assures members of the public that if the Peoples Voice (PV) party, which he is Secretary-General and leader of, were to be in government, fewer foreigners would be able to get jobs in Singapore.
He also promises that PV will abolish The India–Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA).
Towards the end of his post, Mr Lim questions why Singaporean youths should be satisfied with working as cleaners or food delivery drivers when there are better jobs in industries such as IT that are being taken up by foreign labour instead.
He concludes by saying that Singapore is not making use of the talent available in the country and that Singaporeans should be outraged and opposed to it.
Some thought that in order to convince more Singaporean youths to take up cleaning as a job, higher salaries for cleaners should be offered.
Some others questioned the need for qualifications and high education if youths were to enter the cleaning industry.
A few other citizens commented that Singaporeans should start learning to clean up after themselves in order to reduce the burden on cleaners.
Meanwhile, a few others challenged Singaporean ministers to have their children work in the cleaning industry first.
You Zi Xuan is an intern at The Independent SG.
/TISG