Dear Farhan,
I have been working at The Coffee Bean as a full time barista with no clear advancement opportunities and would like to relate to all readers the unfairness of being a Singaporean worker at this place.
While the company has a policy of giving another off day in lieu of the public holidays worked in order to escape the liability of having to pay workers double rate which I initially did not mind. What I take issue with
is, the double standards when it come to applying this policy.
Coffee Bean has a disproportional number of foreign and local managerial management employees and in the end, we have to put up with being lorded over by Malaysian and Filipina managers who are just lazy on the phone all the time and ride on the good work of their Singaporean collies. The off days we receive cannot be determined by the workers who sacrificed family time on the P.Hs. so the Sassoon family can register record profits. And these foreign managers who choose the off days for us pick only the best timings for themselves like Sundays as the Filipina managers claimed they need to go church which we all know is bull as that is the time they all gather with their comrades! I also find it hypocritical of Malaysians who complain about our presence which boost their flagging economy but still choose to come to work on our shores because of the exchange rates. Shouldn't they find jobs on their own bumiputera land instead of always lamenting how we have progressed on our own efforts since being expelled by them?
I feel that instead of pumping in more monies into wayang "May Day Rallies" which goes into their own pockets via another channel or worse still, add onto the profit margins of capitalists, the MOM and NTUC should be spending dollars investigating companies such as Coffee Bean and CK Tang that does not believe nor possess "Fair Employment Practices". The number of companies cited by the Manpower Minister during the Budget debate 2 months ago is far below the actual number of companies that actually discriminates against local workers!
#Now is the time
Siti A'idah
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