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Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie workers

zeroo

Alfrescian
Loyal
http://theindependent.sg/blog/2014/02/19/graduate-hawker-gives-it-all-up/

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“I am sorry I have to leave,” Tan Jun Yuan says mid-way through the interview. He rushes off, dusts his shirt and serves a bowl of bah kut teh to a customer.
Last September, the young lad struck a cord with many Singaporeans when he rolled up his sleeves and went into the harsh world of selling bah kut teh in a Toa Payoh coffee shop. The Independent Singapore featured him in a report on Oct 4, 2013.

A first class honour graduate from the University of Manchester, Tan has been prepared to expand his small food stall to a new outlet in Lau Pa Sat this month.

But Tan, 28, is now ready to let it all go after five months in the hawker business.

IMG_0291He explains that he could not hire any local stall assistant of a fair calibre. He has been trying for the last four months through ads in newspapers and with the help of job agencies.

“I get some applicants here and there. Some of them promised to turn up but never did. I had applicants who wanted to be paid daily, citing financial difficulties,” he says. Tan did manage to hire an applicant who was soon caught pocketing hundreds of dollars in cash.

Associate Professor of Department of Economics at the National University of Singapore Tilak Abeysinghe believes that “unless wages rise dramatically, it will be quite difficult for these coffee shop stall owners to hire workers. But raising wages will kill a lot of these industries.”

Abeysinghe says there is a huge demand for workers in the industry, but supply of workers is limited.

Tan says: “If I have to pay as much as S$3,000 in addition to CPF contribution for an employee and I need 2 extra staff, I do not know how I am going to manage that.

“In the end, we got to ask what is the price we [food stall owners] are willing to pay for labour and we have to balance that with our business operations.”

Tan says he has to be realistic about his situation. “It is not that we are not making enough of a profit. Everyone has a different level of aspiration. We are making a decent profit but if we cannot expand our business at a reasonable rate, then this endeavour might not be worthwhile,” he says.

“At some point we need to have a central kitchen and it is a pure cost centre. We need to have four to five outlets before we can break-even. But to expand my business, I need stall helpers. If it is going to take me one year to open one outlet then it would take me four years before I can even start making a profit to recoup my initial investment.”

He sighs as he says: “We would probably bleed to death before that happens.” Tan believes that foreign labour may alleviate the situation.IMG_0298

Tan wrote to the Ministry of Manpower on Jan 18, seeking answers to why food stalls are not given the same service sector ratio to hire foreigners as other food establishments. MOM got back to him on Jan 29 and said they needed more time to look into the matter.

Since setting up his stall, he has also noticed that the problem with local hires goes beyond pay.

“I remember one applicant. She said to me, ‘˜I would work if the kitchen is not open to the public. My friends live in Toa Payoh. I do not want to be seen by them,” he says.

“I can understand because like her, we are all image conscious whether we admit it or not. There is a stigma attached to this job. I understand many people would consider our work as a dirty job.

“People tell me that if you pay enough, the extra dollar can compensate for these factors but can it really?”
 

tonychat

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
Re: Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie work

Lower the rent.. Simple as that.. Will sinkie PAP fucktards able to do that?
 

BuiKia

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
Re: Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie work

Agree. The problem is the rent and not workers wage.
 

winnipegjets

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Re: Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie work

We are first world mah ...then pay first world wages. You pay first world wages, definitely can find workers. The problem is that we are facing first world expenses wrt housing, transportation, education, child care and medical while our wages are 2nd world, at best. How to survive like that?
 

JohorRookie

Alfrescian
Loyal
Re: Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie work

I'm more interested to find out what he has to say about his First Class Honours Degree from Manchester United University and why he is in the hawker business. Did he respond to some Ministers' call to become a hawker?

He and Pinnochteo belong to the same alumni, so he should have been able to find high pay job quite easily.
 

Brahmadachod

Alfrescian
Loyal
Re: Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie work

Its just a face saving way to end his hawker business. Moses Lim said the same thing before he closed down his restaurant. Host of other businesses said the same thing before they closed down. You don't hear them complaining when they started their business.
 

Romagnum

Alfrescian
Loyal
Re: Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie work

Many people eat at home now - the cost savings are huge.

My old neighbour brings his own coffee to the park downstairs to drink

He told me two cups of coffee a day at coffee chop means $60 a month

He can save 80% by buying the coffee powder from NTUC, just boil water.
 

LEGEND

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Re: Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie work

Tell him to go fuck himself. Cost saving from low labour cost is never translated into savings for consumers.
Why don't he go and fuck his landlord for the high rental? Only stupid gong cheebyes keep pointing at high salary of Sinkies. :oIo:
 

tonychat

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
Re: Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie work

Tell him to go fuck himself. Cost saving from low labour cost is never translated into savings for consumers.
Why don't he go and fuck his landlord for the high rental? Only stupid gong cheebyes keep pointing at high salary of Sinkies. :oIo:

That is very enlightening.. Master LEGEND.
 

LEGEND

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Re: Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie work

That is very enlightening.. Master LEGEND.

I would not be who I am today if not for your enlightenment. Grand Master tonychat is the BEST! :smile:
 

Froggy

Alfrescian (InfP) + Mod
Moderator
Generous Asset
Re: Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie work

Tan Jun Yuan should come to Thailand to sell bkt.
 

AhMeng

Alfrescian (Inf- Comp)
Asset
Re: Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie work

Tell him to go fuck himself. Cost saving from low labour cost is never translated into savings for consumers.
Why don't he go and fuck his landlord for the high rental? Only stupid gong cheebyes keep pointing at high salary of Sinkies. :oIo:

The only way is to vote out these PAP rent seeking behavior bastards.
 

halsey02

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Re: Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie work

These are the kind of propaganda the MIW will drum up to the elections.....this nincompoop is so well EDUCATED, I am sure, would worked out his. Finances, Marketing & Business plan, would of course, done his research & so forth, before taking a plunge into the stall, right?

Now he is taking a easy way out by blaming the Singapore workers, why he does not blame the MIW who is a "landlord" in broad daylight...
he might as well, set up his stall in J.B.....can get plenty of "illegal" workers..
 

Froggy

Alfrescian (InfP) + Mod
Moderator
Generous Asset
Re: Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie work

Why don't he go and fuck his landlord for the high rental? Only stupid gong cheebyes keep pointing at high salary of Sinkies. :oIo:

This is an intentional strategy by PAP to kill entrepreneurship and give all the businesses to their rich cronies.
 

yinyang

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Re: Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie work

I would not be who I am today if not for your enlightenment. Grand Master tonychat is the BEST! :smile:
What's with both of you stroking each other's ego? :p
 

tonychat

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
Re: Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie work

This is an intentional strategy by PAP to kill entrepreneurship and give all the businesses to their rich cronies.

This is very enlightening, Master Froggy.
 

AhMeng

Alfrescian (Inf- Comp)
Asset
Re: Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie work

Vote Opposition Until PAP becomes Opposition!
 

zcsazvx

Alfrescian
Loyal
Re: Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie work

High rental seeking bastards are to be blamed.
 

xcsvscx

Alfrescian
Loyal
Re: Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie work

Let's make zeroo ZERO :biggrin:
 

krafty

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Re: Sinkie hawker with 1st class honour shared his frustration on hiring sinkie work

sibeh dulan pap cronies, they really think they big fuck, sucking and licking the pap ministars balls.:oIo:

This is an intentional strategy by PAP to kill entrepreneurship and give all the businesses to their rich cronies.
 
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