Temp staff member 'removed' after allegedly taking photos of women at Cold Storage and sharing them in group chat

A temporary staff member responsible for conducting temperature checks and contact tracing at a shopping mall allegedly took photos of female patrons and circulated them in group chats.

He has since been dismissed from his duties and police are looking into the matter.

The photos are said to have been taken at Cold Storage in The Rail Mall, which is located along Upper Bukit Timah Road. They show various women in the supermarket and queueing at a contact tracing station.

Screenshots of the group chats were posted on Facebook and the HardwareZone forum.

A spokesman for Dairy Farm Group, which manages the Cold Storage chain of supermarkets, told Stomp that it has reported the matter to the police.

"We take the privacy and safety of our customers very seriously and do not tolerate this kind of behaviour," said the spokesman in response to queries.

"Since this has come to our attention, we have taken swift action and removed the person responsible immediately."

According to the spokesman, the employee in question was a temporary staff member brought in recently through an employment agency to support the additional manpower required for temperature screening and contact tracing measures implemented.

The spokesman added: "We have also reminded all our temporary staff at our stores currently manning our temperature checks and contact tracing stations that such behaviour will be dealt with quickly and where necessary, with legal action.

"We thank the media and members of the public for quickly bringing this up to our attention for our address."

Responding to Stomp queries, the police confirm a report was lodged and are looking into the matter.