MOM reminds employers: Need to allow workers their rights
Shin Min Daily News (21 January 2014): MOM reminds employers: Need to allow workers their rights
Shin Min Daily News (15 January 2014): No takers for 11-hour job selling rojak for $150 a day
MOM reminds employers: Need to allow workers their rights
- Shin Min Daily News, 21 January 2014
- We refer to your article, “No takers for 11-hour job selling Rojak for $150 a day” (15 January 2014).
- While we understand the challenges faced by employers in hiring manpower amidst the tight labour market, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) wishes to advise all employers to ensure that they accord statutory rights and benefits to workers covered under the Employment Act (EA).
- In general, the contractual working hours for employees must not be more than eight hours in a day, or 44 hours in a week. If an employer wishes his employee to work beyond the contractual working hours, he must seek the employee’s consent and he must make overtime payment of at least 1.5 times the hourly basic rate of pay. The employer must also ensure that the total working hours (including overtime hours) shall not exceed 12 hours in a day, and the total overtime hours shall not exceed 72 hours in a month. Also, the employee has a right to decline to work overtime beyond his contractual hours.
- Further, we would like to advise employers to state the employee’s basic rate of pay clearly in the employment contract. This basic rate of pay should apply to his normal contractual work hours, which must not exceed 44 hours a week.
- More information on the rights and benefits of workers can be found on MOM’s website.
No takers for 11-hour job selling rojak for $150 a day
- Shin Min Daily News, 15 January 2014
An Indian rojak stall owner has not been able to hire a stall assistant despite offering a daily salary of $150, with an additional $5 meal allowance a day. The stall owner' son had to give up his engineering job to help out at the stall.
Local food commentator KF Seetoh posted an article on the Makansutra portal that highlighted the labour crunch issue faced by many food and beverage establishments. Even with high salaries dangled, these establishments have been unsuccessful in hiring reliable local workers.
West Coast Ayer Rajah Food Centre' famous Indian rojak stall "Abdhus Salam" is currently faced with this tricky issue. Stall owner Ali (56 years old) was unable to hire a reliable stall assistant despite offering a daily salary of $150, with an additional $5 meal allowance. With such terms, a worker could potentially earn up to $3,600 of basic salary, and $120 for meal allowance a month.
Salam, the son of the Indian rojak stall owner, says, "The stall assistant scheduled for the morning shift will need to start working from 2am till 10am to prepare food items to be sold. The stall assistant scheduled for the afternoon shift will need to start working from 11am. Most of the food items will be sold by 11pm at night.
Besides lunch and dinner peak timings, the workload at the stall for other timings is pretty manageable. Despite that, the two stall assistants do not show up regularly for work, and our family members have had no choice but to help out when they suddenly do not show up for work".
Salam was originally an assistant engineer, but made the decision to quit his job to help his family business more than a year ago.
He says "Initially I had hoped that I could bring the business to the next level, but I had to give up many possible new business partnerships due to the labour crunch issue, what more plans to expand our business."