<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Jan 25, 2009
budget special
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Jobs Credit payout spurs hiring
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Estelle Low
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->
Thanks to the new Jobs Credit scheme announced by the Government last week, bak kwa maker Bee Cheng Hiang is hiring.
The home-grown barbecued meat chain expects to be getting about $10,000 every month, and sees this as an opportunity to increase its staff strength from its current size of 220.
Senior human resources manager Zoey Tan said: 'We will employ more staff and also conduct more training courses for our employees. The sum of money saved from the scheme will help to increase our training budget.'
The Government will be giving all employers money for every Singaporean and permanent resident worker who is on the Central Provident Fund scheme - 12 per cent of the worker's monthly wage cost, subject to a monthly wage cap of $2,500 per employee.
Like Bee Cheng Hiang, 19 other local and medium-sized companies which The Sunday Times polled welcomed the move.
While all 20 companies said that the money will be channelled into some form of training for employees, half also want to translate this hongbao into a meatier workforce.
Mr Michael Teh, the managing director of landscaping company Nature Landscape, said: 'This grant will allow me to hire more workers when more manpower is required.'
PastaMatrix International, which owns PastaMania Restaurant, is looking for kitchen and service staff.
'We aren't retrenching but we are employing about 10 cooks and 15 service staff,' said Mr Wong Loke Ming, its operations manager, who added that the money will be of 'great help'.
Spectacle Hut's managing director, Mr Gary Khoo, said he is looking to hire 10 to 20 more workers for his five new outlets.
He added that the money will also be used for training staff on customer service and enrolling them in optometry courses at Singapore Polytechnic.
Still, some food and beverage and services companies lament that they will not be able to reap the full benefits of this scheme because foreign workers make up almost half their workforce.
Mr Ricky Chew, the managing director of restaurant chain Fish & Co, said: 'The cost savings is only 7.3 per cent of our total wage costs. There should be another scheme targeted at our industry.'
Mr Sebastian Yap, the director of travel agency Transtar Travel, which has only 30 Singaporean and permanent resident staff out of its 215 workers, said: 'We will be getting about $2,000 to $2,500 a month and it will be used for survival. There's a thunderstorm out there now and this is just a small umbrella.'
Additional reporting by >Huang Huifen, Teo Wan Gek and Zureena Habib
budget special
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Jobs Credit payout spurs hiring
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Estelle Low
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->
Thanks to the new Jobs Credit scheme announced by the Government last week, bak kwa maker Bee Cheng Hiang is hiring.
The home-grown barbecued meat chain expects to be getting about $10,000 every month, and sees this as an opportunity to increase its staff strength from its current size of 220.
Senior human resources manager Zoey Tan said: 'We will employ more staff and also conduct more training courses for our employees. The sum of money saved from the scheme will help to increase our training budget.'
The Government will be giving all employers money for every Singaporean and permanent resident worker who is on the Central Provident Fund scheme - 12 per cent of the worker's monthly wage cost, subject to a monthly wage cap of $2,500 per employee.
Like Bee Cheng Hiang, 19 other local and medium-sized companies which The Sunday Times polled welcomed the move.
While all 20 companies said that the money will be channelled into some form of training for employees, half also want to translate this hongbao into a meatier workforce.
Mr Michael Teh, the managing director of landscaping company Nature Landscape, said: 'This grant will allow me to hire more workers when more manpower is required.'
PastaMatrix International, which owns PastaMania Restaurant, is looking for kitchen and service staff.
'We aren't retrenching but we are employing about 10 cooks and 15 service staff,' said Mr Wong Loke Ming, its operations manager, who added that the money will be of 'great help'.
Spectacle Hut's managing director, Mr Gary Khoo, said he is looking to hire 10 to 20 more workers for his five new outlets.
He added that the money will also be used for training staff on customer service and enrolling them in optometry courses at Singapore Polytechnic.
Still, some food and beverage and services companies lament that they will not be able to reap the full benefits of this scheme because foreign workers make up almost half their workforce.
Mr Ricky Chew, the managing director of restaurant chain Fish & Co, said: 'The cost savings is only 7.3 per cent of our total wage costs. There should be another scheme targeted at our industry.'
Mr Sebastian Yap, the director of travel agency Transtar Travel, which has only 30 Singaporean and permanent resident staff out of its 215 workers, said: 'We will be getting about $2,000 to $2,500 a month and it will be used for survival. There's a thunderstorm out there now and this is just a small umbrella.'
Additional reporting by >Huang Huifen, Teo Wan Gek and Zureena Habib
