Seafood restaurant chain Jumbo Group and investment firm offering 100 job roles to retrenched Singapore Airlines workers

SINGAPORE, Sept 14 — Seafood restaurant chain Jumbo Group and investment firm Commonwealth Capital have 50 job openings each for retrenched Singapore Airlines (SIA) employees, Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing revealed today.

Separately, the Restaurant Association of Singapore is also working with its members to put up more than 1,000 positions for the same group from SIA.

Last Thursday, national carrier SIA Group announced that it was retrenching about 2,400 staff members across its airlines SIA, SilkAir and Scoot in Singapore and overseas, as the impact of Covid-19 continues to batter the airline industry.

A day after, preschool operator EtonHouse International Education Group said that it is opening up more than 100 job roles for this pool of workers.

In response to the retrenchment, Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung said last week that the Government will do “all we can” to support the SIA workers and help them transit into other industries.

Speaking to the media today during a visit to electronics firm AEM, Chan said that the positions offered by Jumbo and Commonwealth Capital, as well as EtonHouse, demonstrated how different stakeholders could help each other through these tough times.

“This is how we intend to help one another through these very difficult times, with the Government partnering our companies and also our companies partnering our unions to see how we can place the displaced workers from one company or one sector to adjacent companies and adjacent sectors, so that they can continue to preserve the hard-won capabilities that we have built up over the years,” he said.

Positions in F&B industry

A spokesperson from Commonwealth Capital Group said that as a longstanding supporter of Singapore’s national carrier, the group looks forward to hiring 50 SIA personnel for its various portfolio companies, which range from food manufacturing to logistics services for food retailers.

“Specifically for the food services group, the selected candidates will be on a restaurant manager training programme over a period of nine months and be paid S$2,500 a month. Thereafter, suitable candidates will manage restaurants with a starting salary of S$2,700 monthly,” the spokesperson added.

Singaporeans will be prioritised for these positions and other positions may also be available at the group’s headquarters for qualified candidates.

Ang Kiam Meng, executive director and group chief executive officer of Jumbo Group, told TODAY that its human resources team is still evaluating suitable positions, with priority going towards Singaporeans.

As for the Restaurant Association of Singapore, it said that the more than 1,000 positions offered by 15 of its members will be for both front- and back-of-house jobs.

About 20 per cent to 25 per cent of these will be managerial positions.

For all the positions on offer, the salary ranges from $2,000 to S$3,000, depending on the nature of the job.

“The service mindset and skill sets of the SIA staff are definitely relevant and can be easily applied to the food-and-beverage (F&B) industry. We hope that both SIA and our F&B companies will mutually benefit from this initiative,” the association’s spokesperson said.

Last Friday, EtonHouse said that SIA employees who have been laid off and looking for jobs may apply to take up positions in either the administrative or teaching track. They will receive a monthly salary of about S$2,000 to S$3,000, depending on their qualifications.

The openings are available only to Singaporeans. While Singaporeans who are not from SIA Group may apply, the openings are primarily reserved for retrenched workers from the airline industry, EtonHouse told TODAY. — TODAY