Hiring Singaporeans

NUSSU - NUS Students United - Posts

"One of us (lets call him Joe) interned at an SME for around 3 months. That SME had some blue collar job openings. The management decided to consider only Singaporean applicants because the foreign worker levy makes hiring foreigners more expensive. This was despite the fact that when the ad was put up, more than 90% were from foreigners.

Anyway, there were 11 Singaporean applicants for the initial batch and all were contacted for an interview. 4 agreed to turn up for the interview but didn’t. 3 turned up, got accepted but failed to turn up on the first day of work. Another 3 turned up for work but quit within a week (one quit within 30 minutes of starting work). The last one quit after 2 months when his average income was sufficient to get his BTO housing loan and he went back to doing food delivery because “Although pay lower, no need to work fixed hours. Don’t need to work when I don’t feel like working”.

Joe had the chance to talk to other SMEs located in the same building (coffee breaks are helpful) and the problem isn’t unique. It’s not as if the workers were underpaid since they were paid what they asked for in their interviews (no attempt by SME to negotiate down).

Which is why Joe found it puzzling when some Singaporeans gripe about lack of jobs for Singaporeans and how foreigners are taking up the jobs. There appears to be a disconnect between the narrative by employees online, the narrative by the government and the actual reality felt by employers (especially SMEs) on the ground."