Despite best efforts to navigate the economic fallout from COVID-19, Millennium Hotels & Resorts (MHR) will embark on a work force rationalisation and right-sizing plan.
This will impact 159 of its employees, or around 15.3 per cent of MHR’s Singapore-based workforce.
The hotel group made the announcement on 19 August 2020.
According to MHR Vice President of Human Resources for South-east Asia John Tan: “We need to recognise that in this new economy our business will take time to return to pre-COVID-19 levels. Thus the rationalisation is unavoidable for our business to remain relevant and viable for our employees and stakeholders.”
MHR management has actively engaged and collaborated with the Food Drinks and Allied Workers Union (FDAWU) and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to achieve a fair outcome for the affected staff.
FDAWU General Secretary Tan Hock Soon said the union recognises that the hospitality industry has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and retrenchments may be inevitable.
They had already been working with MHR to implement cost-saving measures, comprising redesigning jobs, training and redeploying workers, and carrying out salary cuts since the start of the pandemic.
“While retrenchments are daunting, FDAWU encourages workers to not lose hope, take on new skills and open their minds to new opportunities,” said Mr Tan.
NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) will provide job-matching assistance to the affected workers during the exercise.
Meanwhile, NTUC LearningHub and Skillsfuture Singapore will assist workers keen on upskilling.
Mr Tan added: “We are appreciative that MHR had committed to provide affected workers with an additional 12-month paid union membership so that they can benefit from the union’s assistance during tough times.”
The company’s gesture to pay for the additional months of union membership is above the retrenchment package provided for under the Collective Agreements (CAs) between the company and union.
The CAs provide eligible represented workers one month salary per year of service, advance notice or salary in lieu of notice.
FDAWU secured severance packages for union members from Copthorne King’s Hotel Singapore, Grand Copthorne Waterfront, Orchard Hotel Singapore and M Hotel Singapore, plus one corporate office.
MHR said that it will continue to place emphasis on developing its Singaporean core which now accounts for 69 per cent of its total workforce, up from 61 per cent before the retrenchment exercise.
Looking ahead, they have also committed to working with FDAWU to facilitate the implementation of the operation and technology roadmap (OTR) to focus efforts on identifying future jobs and ensuring that employees are appropriately equipped to take on these roles.
With retrenchments becoming inevitable for some companies, NTUC continues to call on them to observe NTUC’s Fair Retrenchment Framework in order to protect workers’ rights and ensure fair treatment for workers who are affected by retrenchments.
