Mark Lee admits that most of his workers at Old Town White
Coffee are from mainland China
Singapore’s famous comedian Mark Lee who has opened five Old
Town White Coffee outlets in Singapore has admitted to a Chinese
news portal xin.sg that most of the company’s staff are mainland
Chinese.
It was reported by xin.sg that as most of their workers are from
China, the company decided that it would be most convenient for
them to receive their bonuses in cash.
Mark Lee is contemplating buying a cash counting machine to pay
his China workers in cash:
“That is why we are going to buy a cash counting machine
this year. I’m not being proud by saying this – otherwise, we
really can’t count the cash!”
[Xin.sg, 27 January 2010]
He did not reveal why his company preferred to employ mainland
Chinese over Singaporeans.
One likely reason is the lower cost of PRC workers. According to
an insider from the F&B industry, a PRC service staff usually
cost between $600 – $800 monthly.
As Malaysians are demanding higher wages now, many are switching
to the “cheaper” PRC workers.
Few Singaporean will be keen to take up jobs at such low wages
which are hardly enough to survive in Singapore.
There is no minimum wage in Singapore. Employers have the
complete autonomy to set the wages as they see fit and with the
easy availability of cheap foreign labor, they have few incentives
to employ Singaporeans who cost more.
For a China worker, $600 translates to about RMB$2,900 which is
far higher than what they can earn doing the same job back
home.
Stung by rising anger on the ground as its ill-conceived
pro-foreigner labor policies, the ruling party is now trying to
claw back lost support by promising to reduce Singapore’s reliance
on foreign workers.
Based on feedback we obtain from readers, companies are still
employing foreigners with some posting discriminatory job ads to
scour for foreign workers of selected nationality.
Since the ruling party is unwilling to do more to help
Singaporeans from the lower-income group who are being squeezed out
of their livelihoods by the relentless influx of cheap foreign
labor, Singaporeans will have to help them ourselves.
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