Employment of Long-Term Visit Pass Plus Holders as Hawker Assistants to Address Manpower Shortages

Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui asked the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) whether hawkers can employ Long-Term Visit Pass Plus holders as hawker assistants to address manpower shortages; (b) if so, whether this will include Long-Term Visit Pass Plus holders who are not spouses of the registered stall holder; and (c) if not, why not.

To safeguard and preserve the local identity of our hawker culture, only Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents are allowed to be stallholders and stall assistants at hawker centres managed by the National Environment Agency (NEA) or NEA-appointed operators. Nonetheless, as an exception, NEA allows stallholders to appoint their spouses who are Long Term Visit Pass or Long Term Visit Pass-Plus holders with Letter of Consent (LOC) or Pre-approved LOC as their stall assistants, given their familial ties to the hawkers.