Employers exploiting Singaporean children working for them

[Watchman]

Employers shouldn't exploit 'cheap' labour

<---http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC100527-0000064/Employers-shouldnt-exploit-cheap-labour
Letter from Devi Maradan
05:55 AM May 27, 2010


I SHARE Melvin Toh's sentiments on how interns are treated by the hotel industry. While we appreciate the fact that being in the service industry entails a certain level of commitment, it often feels that many firms take advantage of "cheap" interns.

My daughter is doing her attachment now at a restaurant in a five-star hotel. The management only plans her shift schedule on a weekly basis, not monthly, and because of that we are unable to plan any family event in advance.

She works six days a week, and she often gets a morning shift the day after she has completed an afternoon shift - which means she gets a mere four hours' sleep. Some interns end up sleeping in their locker rooms.

She has even been forced to do two shifts in a day, but the hotel is careful not to breach the labour law by giving her a break of three hours between the shifts. The interns do not have a say on their shift patterns, their days off or overtime, and are afraid to even raise this with their managers for fear of being graded badly.

Such treatment kills a student's passion for the industry. It's probably also among the reasons why we encounter bad service at top-end hotels and restaurants.

It's time the Manpower Ministry and the relevant hotel or food and beverage associations look into this matter.

 

[cooleo]

Most people know that F&B or Hotel industry is knnccb one leh. Unless u managerial level la.

 

[1sickpuppy II]

Nah the management is giving her the " Welcome to the real world " reatment. She should thank them

 

[autoroam]

Watchman,

Dun you think u r being too protective....
When i was doin my internship with a gov shipping firm, u shld knw which 1, my batch & me are all consider cheap labour. We were being paid the lowest and were doin all the shit that no one else what to do...
I had done my time, though no longer with the gov shipping line cos is a shit company. I just take it as part and parcel of life.
Over protective parents will do your children no good. your kid should stay up for themselves as we have some many FT to do what you dun want your kids to do. Unless you are fuckin rich and intend to pass down millions of dollars to them when you are gone. I suggest u let them go through some hardship and not being too over-protective.

 

[Watchman]

I got no issues with grilling children and young adults these days .

They need it, it's soul food !

 

[Received_by_Kings]

I got no issues with grilling children and young adults these days .

They need it, it's soul food !

They need to face some real capitalist exploitation before they take the full brunt of it upon graduation.

If they have brains and are positive, they should take it as a lesson to excel in their studies, so they wouldn't have to end up living a joyless, soulless and an absolutely crappy existence at the bottom tier of the corporate food chain.

 

[Received_by_Kings]

Interns should be exploited. This is to give them an early insight into how the real working world is like, before we go further into office politics.

Actually I've long wanted to operate a company that creams off of FTs and jc, poly and uni students.

These living casualties, when they are finally able to call it quits on their last day and return to their boring and predictable school life thanks to my benign guidance and the exposure I've selflessly hinted them, would remark to their friends that whenever me their boss gives an order or suddenly asks serious questions like "do dragons rock" and "do tigers rule" the person must always answer "Yes Master" or "Yes my Lord" in a happy and zestful tone. Otherwise I'd be unhappy and give even more work for that unlucky person to do with no overtime pay.

Everyone must also take a thick colourful brochure on a small table near his door titled "Why You Should be Used" and memorise the contents because one day before pay day he would deliberately ask the entire staff to stop what they are doing at exactly 6 pm and come into his office for him to conduct a "spot check", which means he would quiz everyone on anything that was written on it and if anybody answers wrongly the person would be awarded a pay cut for that month (which is only 50 cents above the Minimum Wage) and/or be complained to his or her school to be awarded a poor grade in their studies. Oh yes I'd make sure that happens.

They would also tell other people that other than an extremely cheap-looking CCTV erected on the premises there is also a strange and incredibly expensive-looking oil painting of a lion mauling some unicorns like nobody's business hanging on the wall of the office while a tiger and a dragon watches from a distance, while in my room there is an even bigger and more bloody expensive (bloody and expensive) painting of the seemingly same dragon and tiger happily attacking and devouring the lions like they are in a free buffet. Yeah, and I also giggle and laugh like crazy whenever I walk around and stop to look at these meaningful paintings that I got from the Salvation Army, that I would also love to call murals if I had bothered to spend a bit of money and get them painted on the walls instead. But the money is already spent on those glossy self-help brochures for my staff, which are actually more important.

My workers' welfare always comes first.

 

[Watchman]

There is nothing you think about now and wanting to do that others had not exploited it .

 

[Received_by_Kings]

There is nothing you think about now and wanting to do that others had not exploited it .

So what? And HA I don't think so. No matter what you say I simply love my eccentric, creative, gently despotic, and artsy fartsy ways and I would love to see them in fuller motion. As in,

I simply enjoy the idea of exploiting people.

Swallow it up.

 

[Received_by_Kings]

Also, it'd help to understand that we who make up the exploiters have very different and creative ways.

The ends any idiot with a brain (I assume you have one) knows, are the same, but the means are vastly different.

Got that in your head already?

And, I don't really need to send an entourage I mean myself to other countries to see how they exploit their workers, I can start thinking of ways myself.

Because I'm a born people developer.

 

[Received_by_Kings]

You see people,

I've always believed in people development. Theoretically if everyone does his part and perform his instructed and expected functions (however grudgingly for some of them as a noted differentiation), the company would stand.

But, if you can get all of them to do so at a lower cost (even if almost all of them are logically grudging in response) overall, the company would stand stronger.

 

[Received_by_Kings]

I know Watchman loves his own thread because he decorated it with 5 stars, but I love it too* and so I'd give it 5 stars as well.



*for my own reasons

 

[Watchman]

So what? And HA I don't think so. No matter what you say I simply love my eccentric, creative, gently despotic, and artsy fartsy ways and I would love to see them in fuller motion. As in,

I simply enjoy the idea of exploiting people.

Swallow it up.

Not in a negative way that I am being critical .

I want Singapore to evolve faster and
not revolve around the same issues .

Singapore is just revolving like a revolving door .
Exploiting cheap workers to stay afloat .
I want all these companies to die . Because the are redundant .

Let's embrace the new world and new technology .