I REFER to Mr Murali Sharma's Forum Online letter, "Firms should
take cue from Han's" (May 6), and would like to give my take from
the hiring experience of my brother-in-law's F&B business.
My brother-in-law is able to operate his two foodcourts daily
without much manpower disruption because he has a few foreign
workers who are willing to do menial jobs.
Most local workers hired to do such jobs are not likely to
possess the same positive working attitudes.
The public's disquiet over employers preferring to hire
foreigners over Singaporeans because the former are cheaper is a
misplaced conception. This is because there are hidden costs such
as worker's levy, food and lodging, medical and insurance fees
which employers will have to bear. When such hidden costs are added
up, the total can be close or equivalent to the salary of a local
worker.
Foreign workers keep our estates clean, tend to our sick, get us
around in our public transport system, build our HDB flats, and do
the dirty jobs in our shipyards, docks, container ports and so on.
If we did not have them to take up jobs in these sectors, how would
we be able to achieve world-class status for our health and
transport systems, public housing, hospitals and port?
Finally, unskilled or low-skilled foreign workers do not take
jobs away from Singaporeans. How can the jobs be snatched away when
they are jobs that Singaporeans have shunned in the first
place?
Priscilla Poh (Ms)
