I refer to the letter in the propagandist ST forum that appeared today by a Ms Michelle Choy, asking the government to re-look at the FT quota in all F&B service lines (‘Govt asked to relook FT quota in F&B sector‘).
First of all, I would like to reject Ms Choy’s assertion which I quote:
“Singaporeans are not clamoring for jobs in the service sector. The labor crunch will only get worse as Singaporeans become more educated and shun F&B jobs, which cannot be automated.”
I ‘credit’ these occurrences no thanks to our education system, crafted by the PAP to shun and “look down” on such occupations as being “low class” and “having no future”.
But I am in the F&B sector in the CBD area as I chose so and am enjoying my job serving people well although it can be difficult at times now given fellow Singaporeans’ present frustrations dealing with their foreign counterparts which they unknowingly ‘pass’ to us as well as the FTs who mistreat us, thinking they have the right to do so as they were invited by the PAP to be here because of our ‘advertised’ incompetence by the same ruling party.
I know for a fact there are many Singaporeans who want to join the service line but do not know how to advance in this industry corporate ladder coupled with the CDCs and WDA unwillingness to approve funding for their various upgrading course as the manpower minister has said that the government simply cannot meet every Singaporean’s dreams and aspirations. But this same PAP government is able to fund foreign start-ups and FTs here are also able to get approval to attend WDA courses rather easily. My Filipino colleagues just returned from a WDA course “at-sunrise GlobalChef academy” on taxpayers’ monies while I am still awaiting approval from SECDC to attend a diploma course at the same academy.
Increasing the foreign quota here will only serve to further depress the wages of people in the service line as it is well known that foreigners from developing and less-developed countries are desperate to use Singapore as a stepping stone and will accept any working conditions like those of the recent saga at “Twelve Cupcakes”.
Wages in my industry have been manipulated and artificially suppressed for quite some time now. Kindly compare it with our counterparts of other developed nations such as Australia and New Zealand where the same profession is respected by consumers and workers alike.
By the way, I joined this industry after attending one of Mr Gilbert Goh’s conference years ago at Quality Hotel where I was thinking of switching career from the usual “glamorous” secretarial job to one that requires humility and patience. I heard one of the speaker’s difficulties in hiring staff for his restaurant and he even wrote to PMO relating so and that was when it struck me something was wrong with Singapore’s development pre-2011 as I had just returned from Australia and things were not the same there.
I am currently waiting to see if MOM will accept one of the suggestions put forth to it by a member of the public on the same propagandist forum in August 2013, for the implementation of a “CBD allowance” for all service staffs working in the area due to ever high consumer prices which is good for all businesses but burns a hole in pockets of their ordinary employees. Try eating at our supposed union dining at NTUC Foodfare, MBFC Tower 3 and you will see if the cheapest there is indeed, cheap.
Yours sincerely,
DDC
TRS Contributor