For Muslims, eating pork is one of the biggest sins in Islam. It is simply haram. That’s why when chicken was mislabeled as pork at NTUC, people were pretty pissed off about it.
It’s simple to see why really.
Muslims simply can’t eat or touch pork. Even close contact with pork renders other meat contaminated. That’s why there are segregated sections for meat in supermarkets.
Chicken being labelled as pork? That’s pretty bad…though NTUC should be counting its blessings that the majority of internet denizens don’t pin the blame on them.
NTUC’s not totally out in the clear though.
While the general consensus seems to be that the mistake was a genuine one with no malice intended, people are thinking that the corporation are still shitty employers, with crappy workers.
There is pushback to this line of thinking though…A lot of the opposing voices are claiming that those who work for NTUC in the food packing line aren’t exactly to blame.
They reason that these workers are mainly the elderly and thus should be given a pass.
I can see where they’re coming from.
Pasting labels on food is incredibly menial work and I doubt anybody would willingly want to do job that a machine can do. If you’re working hard pasting labels on food, I reckon it’s probably the best job you can do.
No judgements here. Not everybody in life has a degree (I sure don’t) and sometimes you just have to play the cards you’re dealt in life.
It does beg the question if NTUC is investing in upgrading their workers. As the employer, it is their duty to make damn sure that their employees perform their duties as best as they can, no matter what their line of work is.
They certainly can talk the talk, but is it all just hot air and only applies to a certain population of their workforce?
If they hire somebody who’s illiterate, it is up to them to teach the person the basic skills (in this case basic English reading comprehension) needed for the damn job.
So yeah, I agree.
The workers may not be to blame, but NTUC may be the ones to go after if it does turn out they’re in the wrong.
Especially since the company seems to have mistakes like this happen before.
While I wasn’t able to verify the claim about the incident happening before in March 2021 like the poster claimed, I was able to find another incident. It was from 2018, when an expose uncovered that NTUC was chilling halal meats with pork.
NTUC claimed then it was due to their non-Halal freezer being repaired at the time but with so many other claims, it’s hard to give the company the benefit of the doubt. Even if that’s the first time, this is the second strike…and we all know the saying right?
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
It’s kind of hard to be forgiving when it’s the second time (or more) around, yeah?
Muslim customers, who are the most affected by this, are predictably irate.
Most want NTUC to be fined for the breach because this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Objectively, it is a major breach of customer trust and there definitely should be repercussions other than NTUC’s trite ‘So sorry. We took actions to make sure it won’t happen again.’
Some don’t really care that NTUC is penalized but they do want more accountability, in the form Muslim workers handling Halal foodstuffs.
This way, the commenters claim, the person in charge will be more likely to be on the ball and responsible. Some also ponder how the mislabeling could’ve occurred, especially considering Halal meats and non-halal ones should be separated at all times.
Another common theme among Muslim commenters; MUIS is useless.
MUIS, the Muslim governing body and regulatory authority, is seen as being ineffective and toothless by the majority of Muslim Netizens. They view them as being too political, kowtowing to whatever NTUC says (since is close tied with the PAP) and afraid to truly bring up Muslim issues.
Whether NTUC is at fault or not, some posters claim that the issue is being blown out of proportion. After all, why not just inform the staff working there?
Logical right?
You tell the staff and they’ll (hopefully) correct it and flag it, so somebody higher up in the chain of command can do an investigation and see where it all went wrong.
That’s not going to happen at all according to a couple of posters.
It seems like the staff at some outlets are apathetic to the plight of their customers. Instead of relaying the issues being brought up, some of their staff seem to prefer to ignore them instead.
If you think about it though, what happened is actually the lesser of two evils.
Yes, the mislabeling issue is definitely a mistake that should be fixed, but what if the mistake was reversed?
What if pork was mistakenly labeled as chicken?
Yeah, it could’ve been much, much worse.
While it could be argued that chicken meat and pork look different, many Muslims (including me) can barely tell them apart. We’re simply not experienced with pork enough to know how it looks like.
Of course, with all the attention on this, it’ll inevitably draw the attention of the scum of the internet. In this case, it’s this asshole; Kal-Ian Skirata-Christian.
15 friends, a wall with no posts apart from one from March 10, which is a profile pic update.
Oh yeah, this idiot’s a troll.
Thankfully nobody cared about this fool and pretty much ignored its comment.
That’s honestly heartening to see…but it’s nowhere near as awesome as this comment.
It’s heartwarming and the best part of it? It’s true. I’ve read through hundreds of comments in creating this article, and it was mainly the other races that are causing a ruckus because of how it affects Muslims.
While we may have our issues with racists, it’s certainly great to see that the majority of Singaporeans don’t see colors or religion.