By Dhany Osman and Debbie Yong

THEIR lack of English proficiency may have drawn criticism from some Singaporeans.

But a Sunday Times poll of 50 people revealed that more than half of them believe the foreign front-line staff provide at least equal, if not better, service than their Singaporean co-workers.

Take entrepreneur Karamjit Singh, 49, who lunched at Inle, a Myanmar restaurant in Peninsula Plaza, recently.

'The service there is better than that of any restaurant I have been to, even though its foreign staff do not speak much English,' he said.

Mr Hermann Seet, brand manager for Fila, said its foreign employees 'keep the local staff on their toes, but I believe it's healthy competition'.

The sports brand, which has 12 stores, employs 10 foreign front-line staff, mainly Chinese nationals. Seven of them are in its in-house management trainee programme.

Fila started recruiting more foreigners last year to deal with the high turnover rate of local workers.

It is common knowledge that many Singaporeans do not consider service jobs as a long-term career and tend to job-hop.

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