Only 10% of staff are foreigners: FairPrice

Supermarket chain clarifies issue after getting flak for hiring drives in China

By Janice Tai, The Straits Times, 1 Jun 2012

WHILE NTUC FairPrice has been lauded by the public for its recent move to raise the wages of its workers, it has also been criticised for hiring workers from China.

FairPrice yesterday confirmed that it advertised in China to recruit cashiers and retail assistants. Since last year, it has conducted four hiring exercises in China to fill various positions.

But it also assured Singaporeans yesterday they will be given priority in filling job vacancies and that it intends to maintain a workforce that is primarily local.

Only 10 per cent of its staff are from overseas, said its director of human resource Rebecca Teo, adding that there is a need to hire foreign workers, like those from Malaysia and China, because of a labour crunch.

'Despite all our local recruitment efforts, we still face some manpower shortage,' she added, noting that its percentage of foreign staff is but a fraction of the current dependency ratio ceiling set for the service sector.

Next month, the dependency ratio ceiling - the maximum proportion foreign workers can comprise in a workforce - for the sector will fall to 45 per cent from 50 per cent.

Compared with the number of job fairs held here to hire Singaporeans and permanent residents, overseas recruitment drives pale in comparison, said a spokesman for FairPrice.

It holds about 40 job fairs at community centres and clubs every month. It also holds walk-in interviews at its 106 outlets and works with various agencies like community development councils and schools to recruit staff.

More than 80 per cent of its workforce are Singapore citizens.

In line with its efforts to hire more Singaporeans, NTUC FairPrice became the first employer here to announce it was increasing salaries, two days after the move was recommended by the National Wages Council.

Almost all the supermarket chain's 4,000 full-time non-executive staff will get a pay rise of up to 15.8 per cent from next month. They include retail assistants and cashiers. The move comes after the council recommended last week that companies give employees earning a basic monthly salary of $1,000 or less at least $50 more a month.

It also asked employers to consider giving an additional one-off lump sum, to help employees cope with the cost of living.

FairPrice: We always hire S'poreans first
From Rebecca Teo Yock Lan Director (Human Resource), NTUC FairPrice

TODAY, 1 Jun 2012

We have received positive feedback from the public and readers, such as "Reward workers to boost productivity" (May 28), about our move to increase wages of our non-executive staff in support of the National Wages Council's recommendations.

We also received questions about our recruitment policy. We wish to share more about this. As a social enterprise of the labour movement, FairPrice's recruitment policy has always been to hire Singaporeans first and to maintain a primarily local workforce.

About 90 per cent of FairPrice staff comprise Singaporeans and permanent residents. More than 80 per cent of our workforce are citizens.

As we open more stores to serve our customers better, we need new employees and have been advertising these vacancies locally to hire Singaporeans and PRs.

We also work with various agencies such as Community Development Councils, the Employment and Employability Institute, polytechnics and the Institute of Technical Education on our recruitment campaigns.

We hold about 40 job fairs and walk-in interviews per month at community clubs and FairPrice outlets around the island, respectively. At job fairs, our staff are on hand to address any concerns which job-seekers may have.

Despite all our efforts, we still face some manpower shortage. To continue to serve our customers well, we have to augment the local workforce with workers from overseas, like Malaysia and China, by about 10 per cent. This is a fraction of the Dependency Ratio Ceiling for the service sector.

To ensure that salaries we offer are competitive and in tandem with economic and market conditions here, we recently announced that non-executives will get up to 15.8 per cent in wage increases.

This means that the monthly gross wage (including allowances and bonuses, excluding overtime pay) of full-time non-executive staff, such as retail assistants and cashiers, will move from a range of S$1,080 to S$2,095 to a range of S$1,200 to S$2,200.

With this, we hope to attract more Singaporeans to join our FairPrice family.

We also review each employee's remuneration package yearly. Our staff welfare benefits include discounts on purchases at FairPrice stores, comprehensive medical benefits and study grants for their children.

FairPrice hires on the basis of merit, such as skills to perform the job, regardless of race, age, gender or religion. As a retailer, we also look for service oriented candidates who display a cheerful attitude, have integrity and good work ethic.

We provide the required orientation and training to make sure that our front-line staff conduct themselves well, even in stressful situations, and remain good ambassadors for FairPrice.

Reward workers to boost productivity
From Gilbert Goh, TODAY, 28 May 2012

I applaud the move to have a "Pay rise for NTUC FairPrice's non-exec staff" (May 25) by as much as 15.8 per cent, amounting to about S$140 for those earning less than S$1,000, almost thrice the S$50 wage rise recommended by the National Wages Council.

Employers must realise that rewarding workers adequately, especially low-wage ones, would help to improve productivity and reduce resignation rates, as they would feel more motivated to work and would try their best to hold on to a well-paying job.

In contrast, workers who think that they are not compensated adequately would look for alternative work to get better pay, which also makes them rather unproductive.

I recently visited FairPrice Punggol and was glad to see that most of the cashiers were either smiling away on their own or chatting positively while they stacked up groceries.

I hope all companies would at least contribute the minimum recommended S$50 pay increase, if not more, to their low-wage workers. 

Let us hope employers will see the corresponding increase in productivity when workers see their improved pay cheques.

Coordinate NWC guidelines with foreign labour recruitment

I UNDERSTAND that NTUC FairPrice took out advertisements in China to recruit cashiers and retail assistants, offering a monthly pay of $730 plus $200 housing allowance and $50 uniform allowance ('FairPrice first to increase staff salaries'; last Friday). Giant Hypermarket has also been advertising for retail staff in China.

Given the situation, the National Wages Council (NWC) recommendations may need to be coordinated with foreign labour policies.

Otherwise, increasing the wages of low-wage Singaporeans by $50, or up to $140 in the case of FairPrice, may lead to an even greater preference by employers for foreign workers, because they will be even cheaper to hire.

The reluctance of some employers to extend the recommended wage increase ('Bosses okay higher pay but not built-in-raise'; last Friday) should also be seen in this light.

What about part-time workers? Will employers like FairPrice increase their current pay, which I understand is about $5 an hour?

After adjusting for current inflation at 5.4 per cent, and 20 per cent of the employee's Central Provident Fund contribution, the $50 recommended wage increase may effectively be a negative real take-home pay for some workers.

Leong Sze Hian
ST Forum, 31 May 2012

Pay rise for NTUC FairPrice's non-exec staff

TODAY, 25 May 2012

A day after the National Wages Council (NWC) released its recommendations, supermarket co-operative NTUC FairPrice announced yesterday that it will raise the pay of its non-executive staff from July - by as much as 15.8 per cent.

According to FairPrice, with the wage increment and adjustment, the monthly gross wage of a full-time, non-executive FairPrice staff - such as cashiers and retail assistants - will move up from a range of S$1,080 to S$2,095, to a range of S$1,200 to S$2,200.

A FairPrice spokesperson said that about 4,000 non-executive staff will be eligible for the wage adjustment and increment. Fairprice employs a total of 8,000 staff.

"This excludes a very small handful of staff of less than 1 per cent who have hit their salary ceilings.

"Nonetheless, these staff will still enjoy various bonuses like the annual wage supplement, the variable bonus, performance bonus and the one-off special bonus which will be given later this year," she said.

Staff earning less than S$1,000 in basic monthly pay will see the biggest built-in wage increase of about S$140, which is almost three times higher than what the NWC recommended.

The wage increment and adjustment will increase FairPrice's manpower costs by more than S$10 million per year.

Commenting on the impact on the bottom line, FairPrice CEO (Singapore) Seah Kian Peng said: "While this wage boost will increase our manpower costs significantly, we feel that it is right to lift the wages of our staff as we employ innovative technologies to lift our productivity at the same time, so that we can continue to keep prices of daily essentials affordable for our customers."

All FairPrice staff will also receive a special one-off bonus. This is on top of the annual group and performance bonuses which are being computed based on a profit-sharing formula. FairPrice said it will announce details of the special bonus later.

Food, Drinks and Allied Workers' Union general secretary Tan Hock Soon said: "Since early this year, the union has been in discussions with NTUC FairPrice on raising the wages of staff and to also consider rewarding employees through a variable wage component.

"We are pleased that we have reached an agreement that FairPrice is giving higher wages to its staff and rewarding them with additional special bonus."