More Flexibility in Employment of Foreigners as Chefs for Specific and Unique Cuisines

21 Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for Manpower whether the Ministry can introduce more flexibility in employing foreigners as chefs especially where the cuisine is specific and unique to a certain country.

Mrs Josephine Teo: Today, there is no country source restriction on S Pass or Employment Pass workers. This allows restaurants with cuisines unique to certain countries to bring in key workers like specialist chefs.

We encourage food service companies to find more sustainable solutions to their manpower needs and to transform their businesses to be more manpower-lean. They could also foster skills transfers by training up locals. Job redesign is another avenue that businesses should explore to attract more local workers.

Businesses may tap on the Lean Enterprise Development (LED) Scheme for transitional manpower support where merited to support their transformation. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) works with other agencies such as Enterprise Singapore and Singapore Tourism Board to consider such requests for manpower flexibilities by businesses in food services, on a case-by-case basis.