

Drone waiters to plug Singapore's service staff gap - tagawa
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-31148450

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crdoconnor
>The "F&B" \- food and beverage - industry currently lacks nearly 7,000
people, according to government statistics on job vacancies.

^^ The real reason this press release fluff piece got printed. They want to
open the immigration floodgates again.

>Restaurateurs have been experimenting with ways to address the shortage, from
robots that can wok-fry rice and noodles to iPad menus and bullet train
delivery systems. None, however, has so far gone to the extent of having
robots fly around serving food to diners.

...or offering higher wages.

~~~
skinnylatte
@crdoconnor I'm from Singapore. It's not so simple. We're primarily a city
state with just under 3.5 million citizens — mostly highly educated, geared
towards 'professional jobs'. In short, nobody wants to work in the service
industry.

Coupled with some political issues of the last 3 years (mostly resentment
towards lower income migrant workers from neighbouring countries), we went
from "our entire service industry — and construction and retail and
manufacturing and everything other than high end jobs — IS staffed by low wage
workers" to "holy shit, let's not let too many of them in and only bring in
the educated folks with degrees".

This has created and worsened the labour situation. Additionally, with some of
the highest residential and commercial rents in the world (on par with or
similar to Manhattan), it's a very big gap to fill. I have lots of friends who
run F&B establishments — and it's something they're all grappling with.
Retail, too. You seem to not be able to hire _any_ Singaporeans for the love
of money, of any amount. It sucks, esp since we have super exciting growth in
our food/bar scene right now.

~~~
crdoconnor
>@crdoconnor I'm from Singapore.

Guess what?

>In short, nobody wants to work in the service industry.

...at those wages.

Australia has far higher wages for service industry workers and no problems
getting workers.

>Coupled with some political issues of the last 3 years (mostly resentment
towards lower income migrant workers from neighbouring countries), we went
from "our entire service industry — and construction and retail and
manufacturing and everything other than high end jobs — IS staffed by low wage
workers" to "holy shit, let's not let too many of them in and only bring in
the educated folks with degrees".

In other words, the F&B establishment got used to the cheap foreigner labor
while normal Singaporeans STRONGLY resented having to compete with them. The
Government, fearing further electoral damage, vowed to stem the tide of
immigrants and the F&B industry is now SO pissed off that the cheap labor tap
has been turned off that they've resorted to cheap drone publicity stunts with
a hastily written press release reprinted by the BBC.

It's a funny old world.

~~~
skinnylatte
Sure, but our food is $2, not $20, and we have completely different restaurant
economics from Australia (or anywhere in the "Western" world).

Also, what's wrong with drones? We have a great tech industry, and the people
building those systems actually know what they're doing + are solving real
world business problems. If it develops the tech/hardware industry further, I
have no problem with that.

~~~
crdoconnor
>Sure, but our food is $2, not $20

Only in government subsidized, tax exempt food courts. Restaurant prices are
not all that different.

>we have completely different restaurant economics from Australia

The difference is mainly caused by higher median wages (a policy choice) and
the lack of government support for food courts (again, a policy choice).

>Also, what's wrong with drones?

Intrinsically, nothing. What I have an objection to is publicity stunts and
public relations exercises designed to inadvertently foment support around a
policy of _suppressing wages_.

What's wrong with suppressing wages? Ask that kindly 85 year old uncle next
time you order your $2 bak kut teh from him _if he feels financially
comfortable enough to retire_.

~~~
skinnylatte
Nice to see someone pretend he knows all about social issues.

I don't even like that bar, now I'm going to go and have a drink there.

