'A back-breaking job': Hawkers welcome easing of hiring restrictions, say it's too difficult to hire locals

SINGAPORE: Hawkers on Wednesday (Oct 16) welcomed the easing of hiring restrictions on long-term visit pass (LTVP) holders but some said manpower challenges were unlikely to go away.

On Monday, the National Environment Agency (NEA) announced that from Jan 1, hawkers can hire LTVP holders who have been approved to work in Singapore as stall assistants. 

Currently, only Singapore citizens and permanent residents can be stallholders or work as stall assistants in hawker centres managed by NEA and its appointed operators. 

However, NEA exercises some flexibility by allowing stallholders to appoint their spouses who are LTVP or LTVP-Plus holders (who have been approved to work in the country) as their stall assistants. 

Ms Elayne Ang, who owns a chicken rice stall at Marine Parade Central Market and Food Centre, said she hopes to be able to hire an LTVP worker next year, which will bring her total full-time staff strength to three. 

“I need to hire one more so that it’s easier to manage when one of the full-timers goes on leave,” she said. 

She added that it took a while to find the two full-timers currently working at her stall, as not many Singaporeans and PRs want to work in such conditions. 

“It’s not easy to hire full-time Singaporean or PR workers because it’s a back-breaking job and the environment can be harsh so there’s definitely a stigma (with working in hawker centres),” she said. 

“Allowing us to hire LTVPs will definitely open up the pool of people available to hire, compared to now when we can only hire Singaporeans and PRs,” she said. 

Mr Richard Toh, who owns a stall at Newton Food Centre selling chicken wings and satay, has been trying without success to hire another worker to augment his pool of three full-timers. 

“Younger as well as middle-aged Singaporeans don’t want to work such long hours and in such an environment, so I cannot find anyone to hire,” he said. 

“When the government starts allowing us to hire LTVP next year, hopefully it will be easier to find someone… because I’m getting quite old already and so I need more people in the stall so that I don’t have to come in all the time,” said the 70-year-old.

Meanwhile, Mr Jimmy Teo, who owns a bak chor mee stall at Commonwealth Crescent Market and Food Centre, said having the option to hire LTVP workers widens the pool of available workers. 

He said LTVP holders had approached him for work in the past but due to the strict laws, he turned them away.

“They would come to ask for work, but it wasn’t very common because these people know that they cannot get employment and that the government is very strict about illegal employment. So it's not worth the risk for the employers to want to hire these people,” he said. 

With just one full-timer and a handful of part-time employees, Mr Teo said he is considering hiring another worker next year when the hiring policy is relaxed. 

“Staff turnover is very high because some quit after just three to six months which means we have to scramble to find more workers again, which is not easy, and then train them again,” said the 32-year-old.  

“In F&B (food and beverage), you will always need manpower, that’s why we are always on the lookout for more manpower.” 

HELPFUL BUT NOT LIKELY TO BE A GAMECHANGER

While hawkers CNA spoke to said they appreciated the easing of hiring restrictions, some like Mr Teo remained sceptical about whether it would significantly alleviate the manpower crunch.

According to the recent annual Population in Brief report, published last month, LTVP holders and dependant’s pass holders accounted for 16 per cent of Singapore’s non-resident population, or about 297,600. 

“I don’t expect a significant change because I’m not sure there are that many long-term visit pass holders, but every bit counts,” Mr Teo said.

Others called for more to help address rising costs.

In May, a study by the Singapore Department of Statistics found that hawker food prices had risen by 6.1 per cent in 2023 – the highest since 2008.

Ms Ang said customers need to be more willing to pay more for hawker food.

“Relaxing the hiring policy is a positive step forward but whether it will be a game-changer in terms of whether our hawker culture continues, I think more change needs to happen.”

“For example, everyone is willing to pay more than S$10 for a bowl of ramen or pasta but… very, very few are willing to pay more than S$10 for a bowl of bak chor mee,” she said. 

“Hawker food is definitely a craft that people need to recognise the value (of) but because people still want to expect low prices of S$2 to S$3, a lot of hawkers are not able to continue.”