Home >A1Business >General News > $3k dishwasher job is very 'physically demanding': Sakae

Intrigued by news of a $3,000 dish washing job at Sakae Sushi, some 300 people contacted the company to find out about the job opening which seemed too good to be true.

Netizens were abuzz earlier this week when the restaurant chain had said via its Facebook page that it was hiring people to wash dishes for $3,000 a month.

It was confirming a statement chief executive Douglas Foo made in an earlier radio interview that he had trouble finding people to fill cleaning positions even with the high salary offered.

When Chinese paper Lianhe Wanbao contacted him for comment, Mr Foo confirmed that his company was looking to fill 10 cleaner positions at $3,000 a month each.

On Thursday, the company said on Facebook that it had received an overwhelming number of responses and further clarified that it would only consider serious applicants.

One of the updates on Facebook emphasised that the job involved would be very physically demanding and included other cleaning responsibilities apart from dish washing.

The latest update posted on Thursday night also said that arrangements would soon be made "to illustrate just how physically demanding the role can be".

Although Mr Foo previously stated that the job was nine hours a day, brand and communications manager Gregg Lewis said yesterday that the job involved a 12-hour workday and six-day workweek.

Working hours were from 10.30am to 10.30pm, with breaks included.

He said Mr Foo's earlier description of the job had been amended after the management found that a nine-hour workday was not feasible due to crowd volumes the restaurant faced.

In response to this, netizens pointed out that the Employment Act only allows for workers to work 44 hours a week, excluding overtime and breaks.

Mr Lewis told The Straits Times that the $3,000 salary was inclusive of overtime pay, and the 72-hour workweek requirement was therefore not against the rules set by the Act.

While many netizens have voiced out on the job scope, online columnist and food writer Johnson Ong has offered to take up the job for one month and write about his experience.

According to him, Lianhe Wanbao has helped him secure a meeting with Mr Foo to discuss the offer.

Sakae Sushi hires more than 40 dishwashers through contractors and is trying to hire more directly on the $3,000 salary.