Bread Talk: We do not want to hire Singaporeans

Written by Our Correspondent

In other countries like Australia and New Zealand, foreigners are employed only in certain sectors where there is a shortage of local workers. In Singapore, they are allowed to compete directly with Singaporeans for jobs which can otherwise be taken up by them.

PAP leaders have been insisting that Singapore needs to recruit large number of foreign workers for positions shunned by its own citizens. The state media for its part has largely echoed the PAP’s stance while portraying Singaporeans as “fussy” employees.

Customer service staff are jobs which Singaporeans are interested in, but are increasingly being crowded out by foreigners. 

According to a Shin Min Daily report yesterday, a jobless Singaporean who went to a Bread Talk outlet for an walk-in interview was told by a Malaysian HR manager to back off: 

“We don’t want to hire Singaporeans. We look after our own first.”

The Singaporean felt slighted and walked away in anger.

When contacted by the media, Bread Talk claimed that they hire more “locals” than foreigners and is currently “investigating” the matter.

It is not uncommon for HR managers who are foreigners to bring in their “own kind” at the exclusion of native Singaporeans, e.g. Indian HR managers recruiting Indians from their own hometowns in India.

Under Singapore’s weird manpower statistics, citizens and PRs are lumped together under the same “local” category thereby obfuscating the real employment figures for citizens.

Though companies have the dependency quota to fulfil before they can employ foreigners, the restriction can be easily circumvented by getting earlier arrivals to apply for PRs which are usually granted within a few months.

The Home Affairs Ministry revealed that every two out of three PR applicants are successful, an astonishingly high success rate for a developed nation.

There is no minimal period of residency in Singapore before a foreigner can apply for Singapore PR which is given out liberally like toilet papers to construction workers, masseurs, cleaners and even freelance prostitutes.

While foreigners cost much less than local workers and have no reservist obligations, the PAP continues to exhort Singaporeans to be “cheaper, faster and better.”

A recent Wall Street Journal revealed that the relentless influx of foreign workers into Singapore has depressed the wages of ordinary Singaporeans, increased the cost of living and led to an overall decline in the standards of living.

Official statistics from the Manpower Ministry showed that the real earnings of Singaporeans have decreased by 3.2 percent last year even as PAP ministers reward themselves with another 8.2 percent pay hike this year.

It is the duty of the elected government of the day to take care of Singaporeans first and not foreigners who should never be permitted to compete with Singaporeans for jobs at all.

The above Singaporean will not end up in such a predicament in his own country of birth had the government taken active measures to safeguard the interests of Singaporeans.

Perhaps it is time for the PAP to consider changing its name to “Phor-eigner Action Party” (”phor” meaning to please in Hokkien) to better reflect its mission statement and vision for Singapore – that it is acting more in the interests of foreigners than Singapore voters.

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