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SME operations hurt, people cannot enjoy curry
Elections coming, suddenly implement all these stupid
U-turn
FT use should be market driven. Not stupid straitjacket policy and unrealistic ratios
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/news/story/0,4574,376520,00.html?
Top Print Edition Stories
Published March 13, 2010
Singapore's curry joints in the soup
By JOYCE HOOI
UP and down Race Course Road and even in Boat Quay, Indian restaurant owners are facing an uphill battle trying to hang on to their chefs, all of whom are native Indians.
Even before the foreign worker levy hikes were announced, several Indian restaurant owners have had to ask their chefs to pack up and leave the country.
Raj Patro, owner of the Kinara Group of Restaurants, lost seven of his chefs in a span of two months when they were unable to renew their Employment Passes.
Instead they had been told to apply for S Passes. Currently, S Pass-holders are capped at a 'dependency ceiling' of 25 per cent of a business's total workforce. (There is no dependency ceiling for Employment Pass holders.)
'The chefs had to leave because we couldn't meet the quota needed to hire S Pass holders,' said Mr Patro, who owns eight restaurants.
Keeping the chefs in an S Pass-holder capacity would have caused Mr Patro's payroll to balloon absurdly. 'I would have had to hire at least 20 more local staff to keep all the seven chefs,' he said.
His story is echoed all along Race Course Road as well.
Radhika Abbi, owner of Mustard, had to downgrade one of her Employment Pass-holders to an S Pass-holder and send another one home because she too could not make up the quota needed to accommodate another S Pass-holder.
'The ratio for S Pass-holders is four locals to one. For smaller restaurants like ours, it is very difficult because total manpower is not that high,' she said. She currently has fewer than 10 employees.
'We are running on bare minimum, on the operations side. If tomorrow one person falls ill, I'm in trouble,' said Ms Abbi.
Restaurateurs told BT that the renewal of the Employment Passes had been denied on the basis of a lack of education qualifications, even though most of them had 5-7 years of experience.
'Chefs are seldom well-educated. We found out when we wanted to renew the Employment Pass that if the chef did not have a degree, he would have to downgrade to the S Pass,' said the owner of another Indian restaurant on Race Course Road, who declined to be identified.
According to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) website, for the Q1 Employment Pass type, the ministry takes into account 'recognised qualifications' and might also consider years of experience in lieu of recognised qualifications.
BT understands there has been no official tightening of Employment Pass requirements by the Ministry of Manpower recently.
The spillover to the bottom line
This upheaval in the kitchen will spill over to the bottom line. Currently, businesses pay a monthly levy rate of $50 for S Pass-holding employees, compared to Employment Pass-holders who do not attract levies.
Come July, employers will have to pay either $100 or $120 per S Pass-holding employee, for the Basic Tier and Tier 2 S Pass types, respectively.
From July 2012, the rates will increase to $150 and $250, respectively.
Shanmugam Ganesan, president of the Indian Restaurants Association of Singapore and owner of Gayatri Restaurant, knows exactly where the levy hikes will end up: on the bill presented to diners after a meal.
'We will have to pass on the costs to the diners. We are not going to absorb these levies. Diners can expect a 30 per cent increase in the cost of eating out,' said Mr Ganesan, who estimates paying $6,000 a month in levies when the increases fully kick in, compared to $1,500 a month currently.
Other restaurateurs might simply have to watch margins shrink instead. 'I can't pass the levy to my diners. As it is, we are an expensive restaurant,' said Mr Patro.
The rock and the hard place
The Indian restaurant industry is an oddity of sorts, one that is unable to conform to the conventions of productivity, automation and skill upgrading.
'I know the government wants to increase productivity. But my kitchen is already very productive. The same-sized kitchen in India needs 12 men, but mine needs only four. The chefs here do the cutting and preparation themselves and don't use assistants,' said Mr Patro.
Ms Abbi, whose restaurant specialises in Bengali and Punjabi cuisine, is facing a plight typical of an industry that is an outlier. 'It's not possible to find locals for the chef category, and you cannot train them. Bengali cuisine is an extremely difficult kind of cuisine,' she said.
And while restaurants specialising in other cuisines might be able to turn to a local workforce to fill wait-staff positions and balance out quota requirements, that option might not exist for Indian restaurants.
'The local Indian does not want to be seen working in an Indian restaurant - but they are fine with working at Harry's Pub,' said Mr Ganesan.
Going abroad instead of going big
With the screws being tightened for the industry, the effects might not just be expensive - they might also be business-halting.
'I have told our member restaurants not to go big or expand and that if they want to, they should get local staff and not foreign workers. I myself am not going to expand anymore,' said Mr Ganesan.
Some restaurateurs might also choose to vote with their feet over these latest developments.
'We are diversifying into other markets. We just opened up a restaurant in Bangalore,' said Mr Patro.
The net loss, it seems, will be felt more acutely by diners as they watch the cost of naans rise and simultaneously have fewer kinds to choose from. Mr Patro is already considering closing one or two of his restaurants if the chef situation deteriorates.
'It's all very sad, because Singapore is supposed to be a hub for food,' said Ms Abbi.
Elections coming, suddenly implement all these stupid
U-turn
FT use should be market driven. Not stupid straitjacket policy and unrealistic ratios
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/news/story/0,4574,376520,00.html?
Top Print Edition Stories
Published March 13, 2010
Singapore's curry joints in the soup
By JOYCE HOOI
UP and down Race Course Road and even in Boat Quay, Indian restaurant owners are facing an uphill battle trying to hang on to their chefs, all of whom are native Indians.
Even before the foreign worker levy hikes were announced, several Indian restaurant owners have had to ask their chefs to pack up and leave the country.
Raj Patro, owner of the Kinara Group of Restaurants, lost seven of his chefs in a span of two months when they were unable to renew their Employment Passes.
Instead they had been told to apply for S Passes. Currently, S Pass-holders are capped at a 'dependency ceiling' of 25 per cent of a business's total workforce. (There is no dependency ceiling for Employment Pass holders.)
'The chefs had to leave because we couldn't meet the quota needed to hire S Pass holders,' said Mr Patro, who owns eight restaurants.
Keeping the chefs in an S Pass-holder capacity would have caused Mr Patro's payroll to balloon absurdly. 'I would have had to hire at least 20 more local staff to keep all the seven chefs,' he said.
His story is echoed all along Race Course Road as well.
Radhika Abbi, owner of Mustard, had to downgrade one of her Employment Pass-holders to an S Pass-holder and send another one home because she too could not make up the quota needed to accommodate another S Pass-holder.
'The ratio for S Pass-holders is four locals to one. For smaller restaurants like ours, it is very difficult because total manpower is not that high,' she said. She currently has fewer than 10 employees.
'We are running on bare minimum, on the operations side. If tomorrow one person falls ill, I'm in trouble,' said Ms Abbi.
Restaurateurs told BT that the renewal of the Employment Passes had been denied on the basis of a lack of education qualifications, even though most of them had 5-7 years of experience.
'Chefs are seldom well-educated. We found out when we wanted to renew the Employment Pass that if the chef did not have a degree, he would have to downgrade to the S Pass,' said the owner of another Indian restaurant on Race Course Road, who declined to be identified.
According to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) website, for the Q1 Employment Pass type, the ministry takes into account 'recognised qualifications' and might also consider years of experience in lieu of recognised qualifications.
BT understands there has been no official tightening of Employment Pass requirements by the Ministry of Manpower recently.
The spillover to the bottom line
This upheaval in the kitchen will spill over to the bottom line. Currently, businesses pay a monthly levy rate of $50 for S Pass-holding employees, compared to Employment Pass-holders who do not attract levies.
Come July, employers will have to pay either $100 or $120 per S Pass-holding employee, for the Basic Tier and Tier 2 S Pass types, respectively.
From July 2012, the rates will increase to $150 and $250, respectively.
Shanmugam Ganesan, president of the Indian Restaurants Association of Singapore and owner of Gayatri Restaurant, knows exactly where the levy hikes will end up: on the bill presented to diners after a meal.
'We will have to pass on the costs to the diners. We are not going to absorb these levies. Diners can expect a 30 per cent increase in the cost of eating out,' said Mr Ganesan, who estimates paying $6,000 a month in levies when the increases fully kick in, compared to $1,500 a month currently.
Other restaurateurs might simply have to watch margins shrink instead. 'I can't pass the levy to my diners. As it is, we are an expensive restaurant,' said Mr Patro.
The rock and the hard place
The Indian restaurant industry is an oddity of sorts, one that is unable to conform to the conventions of productivity, automation and skill upgrading.
'I know the government wants to increase productivity. But my kitchen is already very productive. The same-sized kitchen in India needs 12 men, but mine needs only four. The chefs here do the cutting and preparation themselves and don't use assistants,' said Mr Patro.
Ms Abbi, whose restaurant specialises in Bengali and Punjabi cuisine, is facing a plight typical of an industry that is an outlier. 'It's not possible to find locals for the chef category, and you cannot train them. Bengali cuisine is an extremely difficult kind of cuisine,' she said.
And while restaurants specialising in other cuisines might be able to turn to a local workforce to fill wait-staff positions and balance out quota requirements, that option might not exist for Indian restaurants.
'The local Indian does not want to be seen working in an Indian restaurant - but they are fine with working at Harry's Pub,' said Mr Ganesan.
Going abroad instead of going big
With the screws being tightened for the industry, the effects might not just be expensive - they might also be business-halting.
'I have told our member restaurants not to go big or expand and that if they want to, they should get local staff and not foreign workers. I myself am not going to expand anymore,' said Mr Ganesan.
Some restaurateurs might also choose to vote with their feet over these latest developments.
'We are diversifying into other markets. We just opened up a restaurant in Bangalore,' said Mr Patro.
The net loss, it seems, will be felt more acutely by diners as they watch the cost of naans rise and simultaneously have fewer kinds to choose from. Mr Patro is already considering closing one or two of his restaurants if the chef situation deteriorates.
'It's all very sad, because Singapore is supposed to be a hub for food,' said Ms Abbi.
...assed you grandmother, mother, wife, daughter and father brother also can ......
