Fair employment practices alliance investigating case of S'porean turned away from job at Llaollao

SINGAPORE – The Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) is looking into a case of a local Punjabi woman purportedly being turned away from a part-time job at a frozen yoghurt shop in West Mall because she could not speak Mandarin.

Ms Karish Kaur had written in a Facebook post last Wednesday (Jan 7) that an assistant manager at Llaollao turned her away because she was told the manager could only speak Mandarin.

“I got turned away from a part-time job I am adequate for ... Why is it that the onus is now on me to learn a whole new language just so I am able to attain a part-time job at an F&B outlet?” she added, in the post which has since been circulated.

But the frozen yoghurt business’ country manager Edwin Ferroa told TODAY the person who had attended to Ms Kaur was actually not a staff.

“We started our investigations last Saturday (Jan 10) and found out that the person who turned Karish away was just the wife of one of the franchise owners (of the Westmall outlet),” said Mr Ferroa. “What the wife did is totally wrong. She should have referred Karish to the franchise owners instead of turning her away.” He added that the Llaollao management has issued a stern warning to all franchisees to restrict the entry of unauthorised personnel into their kitchens.

Responding to TODAY’s queries, a TAFEP spokesperson said that they were alerted to the incident through a complaint received on Monday (Jan 12), and started obtaining more details from the franchisee the following day.

“According to the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices, if a job entails proficiency in a particular language, employers should justify the need for the requirement. In this case, there was a potential contravention of the Guidelines,” the spokesperson added.

Llaollao Singapore has since issued a public apology via a Facebook post on Jan 13. “We have been in touch with Ms Kaur to understand more about the incident, and are seeking her kind understanding and patience in giving us a chance to turn her experience with (us) into a positive one.”