Sentosa IR hiring card dealers in Taiwan
February 8th, 2010 | 
Author: Written by Our Correspondent
According to a Straits Times report today, Resort World Sentosa (RWS) will be hiring 150 card dealers in Taiwan who are expected to be paid around $1,800 monthly.
The advertisement was posted on Taiwan’s 1111 Job Bank website.
RWS spokesman Robin Goh told the Straits Times that RWS remained “highly committed” to hiring locals as its priority which includes both citizens and PRs.
About 70 per cent of the nearly 7,000 staff on RWS’s payroll are locals. The quoted figure is irrelevant as it does not give an exact breakdown of the percentage of Singapore citizens.
Foreign workers can be fast-tracked to become Singapore PRs within a year under the Landed-residence scheme which allows them up to two years to secure a job in Singapore as well as the “in-principal” PR scheme for Hong Kongers and Taiwanese, granting them PRs before they even set foot on Singapore.
Mr Goh pointed out that it was “a challenge to recruit locals with certain skill-sets such as those needed for the running of a casino and a world-class theme park” and “locals might also shun some jobs,” repeating an often said argument by PAP leaders on why Singapore still needs large number of foreign workers.
“As a result, foreign talent and workers have been hired to complement our staff strength and to help facilitate the transfer of knowledge and skills to our local hires,” he added.
It is not known what special knowledge and skills a card dealer requires. With an attractive monthly salary of $1,800, Singaporeans are unlikely to shun it.
Mr Goh did not explain why RWS has to go all the way to Taiwan to recruit foreigners to fill the job vacancies when he can easily fill them with Singaporeans (not locals).
Besides Taiwanese, RWS has also been actively recruiting Malaysians and Filipinos to man its casino in Singapore.
Philipines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in April last year that RWS will open about 5,000 new jobs for Filipinos. She had sent a delegation to Singapore to explore possible job opportunities for migrant Filipino and they went to discuss available slots for Filipino workers such as workers for hotels, casinos and performers with Tan Hee Teck, CEO of RWS. (read report here)
Coincidentally, HDB had allocated two entire blocks of rental flats in Toa Payoh to house foreign workers of RWS while some homeless Singaporeans have to sleep in make-shift tents in parks. The nationality of these workers is not known.
The ruling party has come under increasing public criticism for its lax labor policies on foreign workers.
Despite widespread frustration, resentment and anger on the ground, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said last week that the government will not reverse its “foreign talent” policy. In fact, the number of foreigners may actually increase in the next few years.
For the sake of clarity and transparency, RWS should reveal the exact numbers of Singapore citizens on its payroll for Singaporeans to judge for themselves if it is really committed to hiring Singaporeans. (not locals which includes PRs).
Posted in Editorial
I have long ago made a promise to myself to boycott Universal Studios & casino becos Genting revealed its true EVIL self by employing Filipinos right from the outset.
NO, not interested in both entertainment outlets.
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you know why taiwanese ??
because they can speak good mandarin
and the rich gamblers come from china..
But PAP has done ONE good thing for singapore
and that is opening the CASINOS here in singapore..
and let people gamble away all their money and property..
and also let those with TOO LITTLE money to get MORE money from the casinos..
waiting …
waiting …
for it to open its doors..
Here I come, Sentosa Casino…!!
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wat in the world is ” Singaporeans (not locals).”
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With RWS, we have to keep in mind that we’re talking about the cheapest of cheapskate companies out there. I bet an audit of their labour pool will uncover interesting facts about the lengths to which they will go to hire cheap labour.
Is anyone from MOM doing audits of these sorts of companies to monitor whether they’re sticking with the quota guidelines? Even the tiniest coffee-shop is trying to circumvent the quotas, imagine a company like RWS.
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//Old Guy
your minister khaw just said that the poor cannot make a killing from the casino.
Where is the good?
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PM Lee’s remark that Singaporeans come first is only lip service while he is allowing RWS to recruit as far away as Taiwanese.
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I went to RWS twice this month, and most ppl i speak to, including usher are singaporean.
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While I am no vehement supporter of the right-wing PAP, I don’t think 150 is too many. Honestly, this IR business requires tonnes of capable people and hiring a bunch of uncles and aunties with primary 4 education obviusly won’t be a good idea.
Yes, I support employing Singaporeans, but I think there are much too few diploma holders and SHATEC grads to fill the approximately 10000 vacancies. The government has been expanding the service sector tremendously.
I do agree though that the government should at least be more transparent about how many foreigners they are hiring, and for what reasons. Just so they can remain accountable.
In summary:
Hiring foreigners ≠ bad
BUT
Not being transparent = bad
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It is simple, this is to prevent any singaproean girls from being label a cheap slut or whore, should they engage in any less desirable acts in the course of their employment
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actually the casinos are all about money. if you believe their crap several years ago which they lied about employment for singaporeans. well too bad, you bought it hook, line and sinker. Many of us knew that very few jobs are for singaporeans anyhow.
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This is a specialised trade. At present, we simply do not have people who have the experience in this trade, so I can understand why they need to go Taiwan. Besides, many of their target clients are from China. I would differentiate this case from others who simply get foreigners even though the local can do the same job.
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@ AIYOYO
“At present, we simply do not have people who have the experience in this trade, so I can understand why they need to go Taiwan.”
my dear friend, many of the Taiwanese recruited are just fresh grads
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out of the 10000, 5000 already went to Filipinos.
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Maybe they going there to headhunt all the “ping Lang Xi Shi”
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I am a Singaporean studying in Brisbane currently and i enjoy unlimited rides to 3 major theme parks in Gold Coast for 6months for $99 AUD.Its an offer given to local RESIDENTS/citizens of Queensland.Why cant we enjoy such perks down in Singapore too-discounted entry tickets to Universal studio,etc.
But i reckon its unlikely to happen in Sunny Singapore.
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Here fly the jobs. Hahahahahahahahahaha…
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I don’t think RWS is the only one out there.
Almost all companies will be doing this.
Though not 100% attributable to their fault as they are running a company, focusing on P/L.
a Big disappointment —-> government
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Now TR sounded exactly like what PAP said – oppose for the sick of oppose!
How you guys know those jobs could be easily fill by Singaporean? There are certainly a pressing need for Mandarin speaking dealers in the 2 IR, since one of the main target group is Chinese. Filipino could only due with English speaking clients.
Who’s too blame but yourself for not good in either languages? Almost every English sentence tag with “Actually” or “Basically”! Even Ministers, Civil Servants and Military Officers speak like that! They don’t even try! Really disappointing!
Of course, you could also blame it on PAP for their education system!
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” Singaporeans are my first priority in my administration “!
Mr. Prime Minister, do you understand what you are saying?
Your meaning of priority for Singaporeans are flawed! Everywhere you look, north, south, east, west, we are being rejected.
You, Mr. Prime Minister, is hopelessly useless and cannot lead.
In short, YOU ARE DAFT!!…..Please step down, you are causing more harm than good to true blue Singaporeans!
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I was one of the thousands of Singaporeans who signed the petition for stopping the IR project when it was announced. I was shocked and disgusted when the government announced the decision to start IR and even more disgruntled that there will be 2 instead of 1 casino! I will not patronise the 2 IRs, especially the casinos due to moral reasons and also to protest the moral decay of the government. We all know what comes with large scale gambling. The accompanying social problems may be the last straw that breaks the back of Singapore. I forsee the IRs will be a failure like Tang Dynasty City and other failed projects as many experts in this field say that Singapore is not an ideal location for gambling industry and the rules and regulations will put off the rich gamblers. How are we going to teach our children in the near future on the evils of gambling when there is 2 casinos downtown?
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Kind of interesting to note, all the months leading up to the opening of RWS, and they are unable to fill up 150 card dealers?
It was probably due to their recruitment exercise. If I’m not mistaken, they only started active recruitment only in June and August 2009. Whereas, Marina Sands was much earlier, Marina Sands probably managed to snag all the available local card dealers first.
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no problem…….let the problem continue…….
Love all new citizens and prc and foreigners because they are the people helping timid and half blind singaporeans to wake up.
Hope the government expedite the influx of foreigners.
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are they catering to the PRC’s gamblers? if so, shouldn’t they recruit PRC instead? real bewildering!
anyway i am sure there are singaporeans who can speak chinese and perform the job with some training, maybe its the pay.
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FWIW, Genting Malaysia has actually made an offer to its Malaysian staff to come over to be employed in SGD. The offer is simple. Convert your current pay in MYR to SGD but less 20% down.
For example, if one is paid MYR$2000, you will get SGD$1600 for working in Singapore. This is made avail to quite a large section of employees.
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Our GOV has run out of ideas to spur the economy. Casino is the easier of all. Spend lots of money to solve the problem of the economy. No great amount of thinking required. Polling for feedback from people is just a farce. Understand how our gov works. Little effort max profits.
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“Understand how our gov works. Little effort max profits.”
Fever Guy on Mon, 8th Feb 2010 5:56 pm
Goodness! If this is how the government thinks we may have a Singapore Prostitution Hub in Geylang soon!
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Jobs that Singaporean shun ???
Well how come THEY never have difficulty finding people to work as “traffic wardens” or ‘car park attendants’ ????
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Well,singaporeans will justn have to put the spurs in their hides by keeping the IR’s toilets clean and green!
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Card dealers!!!
Pls lah, if they employ from Vegas or Genting i have nothing to say, but Taiwan don’t even have casino.
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How many of you has applied?
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No way I will patronize the casinos… Would rather go Genting..
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@ Concerned Citizen,
Have you not heard of the new country club?
It’s called the Geylang Cuntry Club! Nor matter how you swing your club,you sure to score ‘hole-in-one’every time!!
Go hurry and join,membership is limited!!
Good deal no joke!!
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I propose the following taxes when companies want to hire foreigners to give locals a more level playing field:
in lieu of CPF tax at the same % as the employer CPF contribution rate to locals
in lieu of family tax if foreigner does not have family in SG to support
in lieu of reservist tax at an amount that a local doing his job would have earned if didn’t go for reservist training
in lieu of training local to fill the job tax to penalise companies for hiring foreigners without putting in effort to train a SG internally to fill the job
Anymore to add?
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Boycott both IR. Hell with it!
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I just do not get it. Why can’t native born and bred locals be trained for the job?
Why do we need to get Taiwanese here and train them?
The wages given to them is about the same given to a local, not less. So how in the world will this help in the company’s bottom line???
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