SINGAPORE: Earlier this week, a post from a hawker who claimed the National Environment Agency (NEA) requires hawkers to be present at their stalls every day went viral, in large part, no doubt, due to the fact that he included a photo of his visibly pregnant wife looking none too pleased standing in the stall.
The post from Noorman Mubarak, who owns Nasi Lemak Ayam Taliwang at Yishun Park Hawker Centre, has received over 1,400 reactions and has been shared an equal number of times.
NEA, which manages Singapore coffee shops and hawker centres and is responsible for regulating tenancies, presented another side to his post and said that the couple has options.
Mr Noorman wrote that NEA gave his wife a warning, saying they were violating their tenancy agreement “by not being in the stall physically.”
He went on to say that they have been managing the stall since 2017 and worked “daily and tirelessly” for 12 to 18 hours a day during the first four years. He added that he used to wake up at 3 am to start working, with his wife coming in at 8 am. He would only pause after lunch to take a nap for an hour, and then go back to work until 10 pm.
Now, however, they’ve become more efficient, and their staff is doing more of the physical work while they themselves handle administration, research and development, and software.
“Now that we are more comfortable using SOPs and systems and software, we are being told we need to physically handle the stall again,” said Mr Noorman.
His wife is now 40 weeks pregnant, he added. This does not mean that she is unable to manage the shop, but the technology and software they’ve upgraded allow them more freedom.
Even after she has the baby, his wife can manage the stall by instructing the staff. However, he claims the NEA finds this unacceptable and she is required to be physically present.
Evidently irate, he wrote, “If this is how they treat hawkers who just only tasted a little breathing space and success in creating a system to enable more time for ourselves, I highly discourage Singaporeans/PRs to be hawkers, they want you to remain in the stall until you give up.”
According to a Feb 20 report in MustShare News, however, there is more to the story. It quotes NEA as saying the stall owners are required to be physically present to prevent subletting, a practice that could result in higher prices. Stall owners who may not be able to meet this requirement may opt to appoint a joint stall operator or a nominee.
In the case of Mr Noorman, it is his wife who is the registered stall holder, not he.
NEA added that the operator at Yishun Park Hawker Centre had seen that Mr Noorman’s wife had not been at the stall and contacted her to explore the option of appointing a joint stall operator or a nominee. They turned down the proposal but can still explore that option, said NEA.
Mustshare News quotes the agency as saying, “NEA and our appointed operators are committed to safeguarding our hawker culture and supporting our hawkers.”
The Independent Singapore has reached out to Mr Noorman for further comments or updates. /TISG
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