Amidst emotional uproar about social enterprises accused of mismanaging hawker centers Old Airport Road Food Centre operator NTUC Foodfare has sought out to debunk all claims that it has been unfair to its vendors.
Though the social enterprise did not explicitly state what they were referring to, it’s obvious that NTUC Foodfare’s statement was published in response to a viral Facebook post by longtime Old Airport Road Food Centre patron Gary Ho. The man wrote that the hawkers felt that the hawkers feel unfairly treated under Foodfare’s management, claiming that they were required to work longer hours and pay more in miscellaneous fees, among other gripes.
Foodfare disputed Ho’s claims yesterday, in a terse statement defending their mission to provide “value quality cooked food in Singapore” while balancing the needs of stakeholders.
On the issue of requiring hawkers to open stalls for long hours, Foodfare clarified that they neither enforce a minimum number of operating hours nor limit the number of rest days per week. “The hawkers are free to decide their operating hours and days of stall closure with prior notification to the managing agent,” Foodfare noted.
However, there are only two hawkers at Old Airport Road Food Centre that are required to operate a minimum of eight hours a day, with only a day off per week. According to Foodfare, both of them have not relayed any feedback about difficulties meeting the minimum required hours.
Foodfare also took issue with the accusations that hawkers were forced to sign contracts they could not read or understand in English. The operator stated that the tenancy agreement and the stallholder checklist is actually available in both English and Mandarin.
The controversial topic of hiked cleaning charges also gets addressed. Ho stated that vendors at Old Airport Road Food Centre had the monthly cleaning costs increased to over $500, but Foodfare stated that not all hawkers pay the same uniform costs. Pastry/dim sum stalls, for example, pay $374.50 a month, and drinks/dessert stalls pay $513.60 monthly. Cooked food stalls have to fork out $588.50 a month, which Foodfare insists are the standing rate charged by the previous cleaning contractor.
More rebuttals
Also responding to Ho’s viral post, Member of Parliament Lim Biow Chuan mentioned that he did not find any hawkers who were forced to work long hours at the Old Airport Road Food Centre when he dropped by.
“I also spoke to 4 stall operators earlier in the evening and they all said that there was no condition imposed by Foodfare that they must stay open for super long hours. Nor was there any rule that they need to report their movement or face punishment”
In response to the MP, another netizen wrote a long post to rebut his points.
