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SINGAPORE -- Filipino faces are already commonly seen delivering frontline service in restaurants, clubs, and bars here, but they are now popping up in a new arena—the coffee shops.
Most are serving drinks and clearing tables, but they come a lot more qualified than their foreigner counterparts doing the same job on work permits. The Filipinos are here on S-passes, typically granted to those with at least a diploma, or employment passes, which are granted to graduates.
They are not complaining, because the job they have and the money it brings are much better than being jobless back home.
Eric Dellosa, 38, is an electrical engineering graduate who is serving up cups of teh-O, kopi and Milo Dinosaur at a Holland Village coffee shop.
He arrived in May last year, hoping to find work in a restaurant or office. Finding nothing, he settled for the coffee shop job, which gives him a take-home pay of about Singaporean $1,500.
With this sum, just shy of the minimum $1,800 S-Pass workers typically earn, he has to pay off the installment on the $3,500 fee charged by an employment agency that employed him; he also has to budget for his monthly rent at a Tanglin flat he shares with three others.
He still has money left over to send home to his wife and eight-year-old daughter.
Long hours at a low salary and having only two days off a month are not a problem for him, even if these are exactly the reasons many Singaporeans shun the job.
He is still better off than when he worked as a sales executive for a Philippine packaging company till it folded in 2000, plunging him into several years of joblessness.
He said, beaming: “In the Philippines, it's very hard for people above 30 to get a job, so I feel lucky to have found one here.”
His colleague, who only wanted to be known as Domingo, also has a degree, in political science. Back home, the best he managed was being a server in McDonalds, where he worked for five years.
His coffee shop job here pays about $2,500 — “10 times more” than what he earned at home, said the 26-year-old.
Not only do Filipino nationals want these jobs, they are helping to ease what appears to be a staffing crunch for coffee shop owners.
These heartland bosses have to keep within quotas for workers from countries like China who come in on work permits.
Coffee shop owners can also hire workers from other approved countries, but hesitate to do so because those workers may have language problems with customers.
Bob Tan, 33, a general manager who oversees three food courts in Tampines and Bukit Panjang run by Astar Food Court, said his workers are Singaporeans, Malaysians or Chinese nationals.
“It is important that we are able to communicate with our employees to train them and also that they are able to communicate with our customers, who are mostly Chinese-speaking,” he said.
He said he did not rule out hiring Filipinos if they were willing to work in coffee shops.
Foreign S-Pass holders, therefore, may well hold out some relief for the staffing crunch faced by coffee shop owners.
Only up to a quarter of the coffee-shop workers can be foreign S-Pass holders, but there is no restriction on where they come from. The employment levy is lower too — $50 a month, compared to at least $150 a month for a work permit holder.
Botak Jones, a kopitiam-based Western food chain, has hired at least 16 Filipinos across its eight outlets.
Owner Bernie Utchenik said he has found them diligent and carrying “the right approach” to the job.
“They come here with a more invigorated attitude, to do jobs people here might find mundane,” he added, noting that his Filipino staffers are trained in a broad range of skills relevant to the service industry.
Christopher Tan, the head of commerce in the Foochow Coffee Restaurant and Bar Merchants Association, said the Filipinos' command of English also gives them an edge in areas like Holland Village, which has many expatriates.
They may have a problem with heartlanders though, he added.
“How are they able to communicate with the heartlanders — especially the old Chinese grandmas? Filipinos don't know our languages and our dialects,” he said.
Marilou Satieda, 25, a supervisor at the Botak Jones outlet in Toa Payoh who has been here just over a year, said she does not find language a problem: She just hollers for her Mandarin-speaking colleagues when necessary.
But the local lingo, of course, can be picked up.
Dellosa can now get his head around kopi-O, teh-si and Milo-peng, respectively black coffee, tea with evaporated milk and iced Milo.
“I hear the words every day so I picked them up,” he said cheerily, as he rushed off to call in his next order of teh-si and teh-halia (ginger tea).
For Satieda, who has a degree in hotel and restaurant management and now lives with her Singaporean boyfriend in Woodlands, the job keeps her independent.
Back home, when she ran her own business selling telephone top-up cards, she earned less than the $1,800 she gets now, she said.
“Ultimately, I am open to working in any industry.” Diana Othman, The Straits Times-ANN
