Shaken by state regulations and tighter restrictions against COVID-19, frontline businesses, across the board, have taken a massive clobbering across the past year and a half. These businesses faced existential challenges such as lack of rental subsidies from landlords despite poor, or sometimes zero, foot traffic.  

While a small minority of landlords did provide some rental subsidy help, the vast majority of business tenants got no help at all. The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly shown how unbalanced the relationship is between landlords and tenants.

A brand new co-operative Singapore Tenants United For Fairness (SGTUFF) was formed last year to collectively help these tenants, particularly those from the Retail, Food and Beverage (F&B) and Services sectors, with commercial properties address key landlord issues that arose due to COVID-19.

“Our Group has been very active in representing the community on engaging with multiple governmental ministries, such as the Ministry of Trade and Industry, working with fellow Trade Associations & Chambers (TACs) such as Association of Small & Medium Enterprises, Restaurant Association of Singapore and Singapore Retailers Association, and engaging landlords to give feedback and recommendations on what are the short-term or long-term measures that will address the core issues faced by frontline businesses,” says Mr Terence Yow, Chairman, SGTUFF.

At present, the co-operative boasts over 1000 verified business owners and represents 873 brands in 3,823 retail outlets, occupying over 5 million square feet of commercial space with a strong 29,816 workforce. The co-operative is also part of the Fair Tenancy Framework Industry Committee and Fair Tenancy Pro-Tem Committee tasked to propose Fair Tenancy Legislation for commercial tenancies.

Here, an exclusive interview with Mr Yow on what SGTUFF is striving for in the future.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PROJECTS SGTUFF IS CURRENTLY WORKING ON, AND WHAT ARE THE PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE?

Terence Yow: As a policy-making contributor, SGTUFF’s biggest priority remains in advocating for Fair Tenancy and Manpower matters for Singapore’s frontline business community. We have initiatives to leverage the scale of common sourcing and networking opportunities within our big membership base.

WE UNDERSTAND THAT SGTUFF HAS ALSO STARTED ON “MULTIPLE COMMUNITY BUILDING AND SELF-HELP INITIATIVES TO FORM NEW ALLIANCES, NEW IDEAS AND PROMOTE SYNERGIES AMONGST FRONTLINE BUSINESSES''. WHAT ARE SOME OF THESE COMMUNITY BUILDING AND SELF-HELP INITIATIVES THAT THE CO-OP HAS EMBARKED ON?

TY: Many business owners in our community have forged strong friendships and collaborations during this period of crisis. We have seen businesses doing joint promotions and co-marketing events together, splitting common backend costs—like digital marketing—between the different parties.

One of our associate members Mr Edwin Png has helped some of our members reinstate their units to their original condition. He and Mr Lik Wong, another associate member, went on to sell used fixtures and fittings on Facebook and Carousel to reduce wastage. Mr Png is currently assisting SGTUFF members with reinstatement works for their retail/Food & Beverage outlets at competitive prices.SGTUFF has unveiled a new Code of Conduct to establish fair tenancy practices for all. Has the co-operative observed any prospective outcomes since?

TY: The Code Of Conduct has been very much welcomed by the tenant community as it addresses many unfair tenancy issues. We are still in the early days since its implementation, but we have been consistently monitoring the situation closely with our community and fellow tenants in the other trade associations. So far, we are seeing landlords who have agreed to abide by the Code Of Conduct making the effort to do so. We are looking forward to the formal legislation of the Code Of Conduct within this year.

THE CO-OP MENTIONED THAT IT WILL LOOK INTO HOW IT CAN HELP IMPROVE MANPOWER ISSUES. WOULD YOU BE ABLE TO SHARE WHAT HAS BEEN DONE SINCE ON THIS FRONT?

TY: SGTUFF previously held a job fair at Keat Hong Community Club from 12 to 13 November 2020, it offered more than 1,000 roles in a bid to help ease the labour shortage within the frontline industries. The job fair was well received by both the business owners and job applicants.

Over the past 15 months of this pandemic crisis, SGTUFF has also made multiple representations to the government regarding manpower issues faced by our community. We have seen various manpower reliefs and grants doled out by the government to help small businesses tide through this period.

At the moment, we are now involved as a key contributor to the planning and design of the Progressive Wage Model which is to be rolled-out for our sectors.