SPEECH BY MR EDWIN TONG, SENIOR MINISTER OF STATE, MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND LAW AT THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF THE SAMSUI-SODEXO PARTNERSHIP ON FRIDAY, 20 TH SEPTEMBER 2019, 3.15PM AT THE ENABLING VILLAGE

Professor Cham Tao Soon, Chairman of Soup Restaurant Group

Johnpaul Dimech, Country President Sodexo Singapore 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Friends

1.     It is such a pleasure to join you this afternoon at the official launch of the Samsui-Sodexo Partnership.

Disabled, not unable

2.     Singapore has been working to build a more inclusive society where persons with disabilities feel empowered and included, and are integrated into part of our society. We want to do this because every person is special, every person has unique intrinsic gifts. And by being inclusive, we can help them realise their fullest potential. In order for us to do this, employment and employers are key enablers in this process.

3.     Persons with disabilities have proven time and again that they can deliver similar, as good, if not even better outcomes with opportunities that they are given and the support they have from the society. One example is Ms Lim Linli who works in the admission department at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital as a Senior Patient Service Associate. She assists patients with their admission into the hospital and helps them understand their hospitalisation bills. Linli requires a motorised wheelchair to move around and relies mostly on her right arm. She has been doing very well at work with the support of her employer and colleagues, which is and will be a very important component of being an enabling and inclusive Singapore. She has adjusted well to her workplace, at moving around and working around the hospital. In fact, Linli was recognised for her contributions at work when she received the Singapore Health Quality Service Award and an Exemplary Employee Award during her 10 years working at KKH.

4.     Earlier on, during my hands-on experience, I have not just worked alongside, but I have learned from Jarren and Mary. They are students of Samsui Centre of Hospitality and full-time employees at Samsui Kitchen producing items such as spring rolls, siew mai, buns, other pastries, and of course, later on you will try the lotus buns. It may take them a little longer to learn and produce dim sum with the kind of right consistency, but then again, every one of us has that problem as well - whether you are able bodied or otherwise, whether you have the skills or otherwise. But with the training that Samsui has provided, they have made improvements. And I saw not just Mary and Jarren, but also the actual kitchen where there is a group of students who were learning and Samsui has found a way to make the learning fun, memorable, enjoyable and something that is more than just a learning experience. It is also a social experience. So this is inclusivity in employment, and inclusivity in social skills as well.

5.    The success of Linli as well as Jarren and Mary – and they are a few out of so many – shows that with a little more thought and effort, a bit more careful planning such as redesigning the workplace and investing more hours in training employees with disabilities, we can indeed create inclusive workplaces.

6.     But I would say that it is a lot more than just how we design the workspace and how we train, because ultimately, it is the whole mindset. If we are conscious and if we are deliberate, it will become second nature and I think that is what we want to work towards. We aim to improve the culture of the workplace as much as possible so that employers will find that inclusive workplaces will encourage co-workers to be more supportive of one another and customers need to be part of that equation, to be more understanding. We can also see that young people, who are both consumers and employees, want to work in organisations that do their part for the community, and seek out brands with social responsibilities and social causes.

Progress in inclusive hiring

7.     On the government’s end, we have rolled out several incentives and schemes in recent years to support persons with disabilities in their employment journey. It is heartening to know that these efforts are bearing fruit. It had taken a bit more time initially but I think now, people are a lot of accepting, a lot more aware. I would say a lot more inclusive not just in their actions, but also in their mindset. To cite some numbers:

      a.     More than 8,600 employees with disabilities and their employers benefitted from the Special Employment Credit (SEC) in 2018, up from about 5,000 in 2012;
     b.    More than 2,000 persons with disabilities were placed with close to 780 employers from Jan 2016 to Jun this year with support from the Adapt and Grow initiative; and

      c.    SG Enable received 60% more employer submissions for the fifth Enabling Employers Awards this year. It is of course awards and numbers, but they are all proxy indicators of what is happening – how employers are embracing this. So this was 60% for the fifth Enabling Employers Awards compared to its fourth edition in 2017, and a total of 111 awards were presented, twice more than 2017.

8.     There have been a slew of initiatives introduced this year. In June, the Ministry of Manpower and SG Enable launched a Job Redesign Guide to provide companies with information on how to apply job redesigns to better integrate Persons with Disabilities at work. Earlier this year, in July, Minister Desmond Lee announced a pilot to make it easier for social enterprises and inclusive businesses to hire persons with disabilities in housing estates and neighbourhoods, which will bring more job opportunities closer to their homes. All of these are concrete steps that we have taken. We have more in the pipeline to ensure that we put in place enhancements to the employability of persons with disabilities.

It takes a village

9.     We have all heard the saying “it takes a village to raise a child”. I would say that the effort that we have to integrate persons with disabilities, to make them part of society, to normalise their role in society, will need that bit and maybe a bit more. The public, private and people sectors need to work more closely together and integrate that desire and inculcate that spirit into our society. It is happening already. Some steps have been taken, as I have mentioned earlier, and the Ministry of Social and Family Development has set up a workgroup comprising members from the people, private and public sectors to explore ways to better support persons with disabilities in gaining employment.
10.     It brings me to today’s event. These are two giants in their own rights – Samsui and Sodexo. These giants go about in their corporate business, serving their customers here and in the region, but they do so with a heart. Their collaboration today demonstrates that manifesto. They bring together their strengths, and they are unique strengths in their own rights, and their expertise to create employment opportunities for persons with disabilities, working with SG Enable to develop a programme to train persons with disabilities in service and kitchen operations in the F&B sector. It is really from the classroom, in the conceptual place, right through to the workplace, in the actual operations in the kitchen

11.     I had the opportunity to tour the classroom and kitchen earlier. First, students will be taught at an incremental pace on culinary modules, such as safety, inventory management, food preparation and culinary techniques, in a safe environment. Those who take a little bit more time may move along more slowly, but I can see their interest. They will subsequently learn on the job in Samsui’s catering kitchen, which supplies meals to clients all over Singapore. It will include Sodexo client sites, schools, nursing homes and voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs).

12.     Samsui and Sodexo also plan to develop programmes that will enable the students to attain higher level accreditation after they graduate from the 6-month foundation course. Their goal is to obtain placements for the students with F&B operators, including the kitchens run by Samsui as well as sites operated by Sodexo. This programme, I am sure all of you will agree with me, is commendable. We need to find more ways to ensure that we can replicate this, scale it up so that it becomes economically viable as well, but in the longer term meaningful and sustainable.

Closing

13.     In closing, I want to say that employers are sometimes reluctant to hire persons with disabilities but I believe that stems from a lack of awareness, a lack of heart. That is why I said at the start and I will repeat, it has a lot to do with the mindset – how you can inculcate a mindset change, how you can encourage that change – so that persons with disabilities no longer feel that they have to be specially part of a programme to be included, but that they will walk into a place, workplace and the society, and they will feel as welcomed, as part of the place as any other employees. And I think if we achieve that goal in Singapore, then I think that we can truly call ourselves inclusive because we do not have to take extra steps to make someone feel that they are included in the workplace. That, I feel is the dream that we have. Today, these two entities have taken a big step and I thank them very much for the growth that we have made.

14.     I wish Samsui and Sodexo all the very best as they continue to cement their partnership and look forward to hearing more success stories in future.

Thank you very much.