At some point in your life, you probably would have heard of someone you know getting retrenched, whether it’s your parent or your friend’s parent or your colleague.
Although it is very unfortunate, companies tend to retrench people because of restructuring purposes, or well, at least that’s what they all say.
According to an official statement, M1, one of the four major telco companies in Singapore, has revealed that 50 employees were retrenched in February due to restructuring, or rather, “strategic digital transformation plan”, as M1 calls it.
The following will be a summarized version of what M1 actually said in its statement, but their full statement will be included at the end of the article if you do intend to read it.
M1 Has Retrenched 50 Staff in S’pore Due To Restructuring
The retrenchment exercise was carried out because M1 wanted to streamline its processes. It was looking into adopting new ways of working and incorporating technology into its systems to boost productivity and efficiency.
This would allow them to “be more agile to respond to customers’ rapidly-changing requirements”.
During the restructuring, there was a creation of new roles as well as outsourcing and redesigning of existing roles.
Some roles, however, have been deemed to be redundant and are removed.
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M1 Assists Affected Employees
If you think that M1 just informed the affected employees that they were going to be retrenched and did nothing else, you’re wrong.
M1 clarified that half of those employees were “offered and had accepted roles” with an outsourced vendor that supports M1’s systems.
While the other half, which represents about 1.6% of M1’s total headcount, will leave the company within the next few months.
All affected employees will be fairly treated and will be compensated.
This will be overseen by both M1 and the Singapore Industrial and Services Employees’ Union (SISEU), which the former has worked with since late 2019.
Those who were retrenched have also been supported through outplacement support and training programmes organised by NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), Workforce Singapore and Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) based on the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) guidelines.
As a closing statement, M1 assured everyone that the retrenchment exercise was conducted based on the guidelines in the Tripartite Advisory on Managing Excess Manpower and Retrenchment by MOM along with other partners.
M1’s Full Statement
In case you wanted to know what M1 actually said in full, here is the official statement according to Mothership:
“As part of M1’s strategic digital transformation plan, we are streamlining processes, implementing new ways of working and building new digital capabilities to further improve our productivity and efficiency, and allow us to be more agile to respond to customers’ rapidly-changing requirements, as well as capture new opportunities for growth in the digital marketplace.
With the new organisation structure and ways of working, some new roles have been created, some existing roles outsourced or redesigned, and some positions have been made redundant.
About 50 employees were informed in February 2020, of which half were offered and had accepted roles with the outsourced vendor to provide continued support for M1’s systems. The remaining employees leaving the company over the next few months represent about 1.6% of M1’s headcount. M1 and SISEU will ensure fair treatment and compensation package for all affected employees and have also extended our fullest support to them in this transition including outplacement support and training programmes through collaboration with NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute), Workforce Singapore and IMDA.
Throughout, we have worked closely together with SISEU since late 2019 and notified the relevant authorities on the matter. Both the union and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) have been duly consulted, and all the departures have been carried out in accordance with Tripartite Advisory on Managing Excess Manpower and Retrenchment.”
Being Unfairly Treated
During this period where the COVID-19 outbreak is quite serious, many businesses have been suffering severe losses. As such, in order to cut losses, they may also introduce pay cuts and may temporarily halt hiring new employees.
There have also been companies that discriminate against local workers and choose to hire foreign workers instead, either because they’re cheaper to hire or because of certain connections that they have.
MOM previously announced that nearly 1,000 companies are currently on the Fair Consideration Framework (FCF) Watchlist because they were suspected of discriminating against local workers.
If you ever find yourself being unfairly treated by your workplace, you may file a complaint to the Tripartite Alliance for Fair & Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP).
