Tan Chuan-Jin criticises woman who berated foodcourt cleaner

Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin. (Photo: Yahoo Newsroom)

Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-jin said on Friday (10 June) that the woman who was filmed berating a deaf cleaner at the JEM foodcourt should not have behaved in such a manner.

“Whether you have flu or not, or if a person is disabled or not, one shouldn’t have behaved in the way the woman did. Respect our fellow workers,” Tan said in a post on his Facebook page.

Tan also said that he had visited the part-time cleaner, Png Lye Heng, at JEM and found the latter to be in good spirits.

Png, who has been reported to be leaving the foodcourt after the incident, told the minister that he had already received some job offers. Tan added that he would be getting his colleagues at his ministry to follow up with him “to see if (Png) would need additional assistance in other areas”.

A video uploaded last week by Facebook user Euphemia Lee showed Png being shouted at by a woman who was later identified as Alice Fong, 37.

In the video, Fong was seen shouting at Png and his manager, who attempted to apologise after Png had tried to clear her food before she had finished it.

“If he’s deaf, ask him don’t work, go home and sleep… just ask the government to feed him, go and be a beggar, I don’t care, he took my food!“ Fong can be heard shouting in the video.

In a subsequent interview with The New Paper, Fong said that she had been on medication for flu and cough at the time of the incident. Netizens have lambasted Fong for her behaviour, with some posting her personal details and other incidents that she may have been involved in.

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