MBS Not Renewing Contracts of some Foreign Workers; Highlighted That It’s Not Retrenchment

If it wasn’t obvious before, the coronavirus sucks.

Not only are people not allowed to go out, some people even lost their jobs and more than a few businesses had to close down!

Image: Imgflip

Even those that stuck around have suffered financially.

This eventually leads to not being able to employ more workers, people can’t get jobs and the cycle snowballs.

The instability can be scary, even more so if you’re a foreign worker.

MBS Not Renewing Contracts

Unfortunately, the reality surrounding such situations is all but true.

According to The New Paper, an MBS spokesman said there have been some non-renewals of employment contracts for foreign staff.

Image: Carmen’s Luxury Travel

These are for the fixed-term contracts expiring in the third quarter of this year and affects mostly those in the food and beverage (F&B) sector.

However, according to MBS, this number is only a small percentage of their 10400 workers and the majority largely remain unaffected.

Some good news, at least.

However, since this is just non-renewal of contracts, it also does not count as retrenchment.

“Non-renewal of fixed-term employment contracts takes place from time to time, in both good and bad times, as part of our ongoing review of short, medium, and long-term manpower needs across our operations,” the spokesman added.

Regardless, it’s still unfortunate the some of these workers won’t be able to hold onto their previous positions.

The spokesman said MBS has continued to recruit staff for positions in the resort and reportedly still pay the workers in full despite suspended operations.

While this may be somewhat of a neutral note for MBS, a lot of other F&Bs weren’t so lucky. 

Follow us on Telegram for more informative & easy-to-read articles, or download the Goody Feed app for articles you can’t find on Facebook!

Damage to F&B

Before that, let me remind you of some statistics.

In April alone, over 8600 businesses have shut down in Singapore.

Image: gfycat

And while most F&Bs were supposed to close just for the Circuit Breaker’s duration, well…

It’s still Phase One, quite a number can’t reopen just yet.

And those that can’t financially sustain? They’re now closed permanently.

One article even compiled a list of restaurants that are closing down in June this year.

  • High Steaks
  • Breko Cafe
  • The Chophouse
  • Hops & Berries
  • Long Time Ago
  • Meats N Malts
  • Purple Turtle
  • Chi Kinjo
  • Lounge 7
  • The Botanic Restaurant
  • Miss Chinatown
  • 7th Mile Seafood
  • Isetan Japan Food Town @ Wisma Atria
  • La Cantina in Venezia
  • Ministry of Food
  • Oromo Coffee
  • Spice World Hotpot
  • Tian Wei Seafood Zi Char Restaurant
  • Kuishin Bo
  • Jok Jok Mor Traditional Thai
  • SG Pho House
  • Coffee Break @ Singapore Science Park (outlets at Hong Lim and Amoy Street Food Centre still open)
  • Chinadoll

It was over for the writer when he saw Ministry of Food there.

A chope survey doesn’t reveal bright numbers either.

93 per cent of restaurants have seen a dip in revenue and 78 per cent are not prepared to last longer than six months if things do not get better.

80 per cent had to cut staff too!

We can only hope for that early Phase Two opening so that these surviving outlets can get back up and running. Takeaways and deliveries can only help so much, after all.