Safe distancing ambassadors have been deployed by various government agencies to ensure people in public in Singapore don’t stand too close to one another.

While their role is to guide and ensure implementation and compliance with safe distancing measures, they do not impose fines.

And it is a role that the National Environment Agency (NEA) appears to be paying up to S$2,500 per month for hired hands.

Job description

According to couple a of job advertisements on fastjobs.sg and Jobsbuddy.co, the vocation entails assisting NEA in "safe distancing measures" across 111 hawker centres throughout Singapore.

The responsibilities of the job include, among other duties:

• Guiding patrons at hawker centres to sit on unmarked seats,
• Keeping a safe distance of 1 metre from each other when queuing,
• Encouraging them to opt for take-out or delivery options when seating is limited, and
• Getting patrons to return their trays.

The working hours for the job are 8am to 5.30pm for the day shift, and 12pm to 9.30pm for the night shift, while a full day shift starts from 8am to 2pm and continues at 6pm to 9.30pm.

All successful applicants must work the full day shift and in addition, choose either the day shift or the night shift.

One posting further stated that the total number of work days are five, with the off days on Monday, and either Wednesday or Thursday.

Must be able to convince people

With regard to requirements, the job advertisements have listed the following:

• A minimum education requirement of a diploma/higher NITEC,
• Fluency in English and one's own mother tongue, with dialect being a bonus,
• Being "passionate, warm, outgoing" and charismatic with the "ability to persuade others to change their mindset and/or behaviour,"
• Able to work in a hawker centre environment, and
• Being able to start from Mar. 26 onwards.

Having past sales and customer experience has also been listed as an advantage.

Mothership has reached out to NEA for more information.

Cannot impose fines, Other penalties in place

While these ambassadors are unable to impose fines, it's important to note that there are still penalties in place for not adhering to social distancing measures at hawker centres.

Should individuals not sit on a seat that has been marked out as not to be occupied, or queue less than 1 metre away from another person in the queue, they will be guilty of an offence and can be fined up to S$10,000 or jailed up to six months or both.

These penalties also apply to owners of public places and organisers of events should public safety measures not be adhered to.

Top image collage from WhatsApp and Jeanette Tan

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