News broke on Saturday (Jan 14) that Surbana Jurong, a company formed in 2015 through the merger of urban planner Surbana International Consultants and Jurong International, was terminating the services of 54 of its staff.

Retrenchment?

The Online Citizen had earlier reported that workers "were given two letters" - one a resignation letter, the other a termination letter - compelling them to sign one, after meeting Surbana Jurong's Human Resources department on Jan 6. News of this sparked comments from netizens who felt that this move was akin to retrenchment.

No retrenchment: Surbana Jurong

In response to queries from Business Times on Jan 17, Surbana Jurong said, ""We categorically state that there was no retrenchment. In line with the company's continuous focus on being a high-performance-driven organisation, about 50 poor performers were released."

Following initial media reports, Surbana Jurong group chief executive Wong Heang Fine sent an email to its workers defending the company's move. He said, "We cannot allow our 1 per cent of poor performers to continue to affect the rest of the 99 per cent of staff who are performing." The email was reported by Straits Times.

Wong also said there were no retrenchments nor was the exercise targeted at any specific business unit, community, discipline or age.

His email also noted that the 54 employees represents 0.41 per cent of Surbana Jurong's global workforce and 0.79 per cent of its Singapore staff.

Unionist speaks up

Singapore Industrial and Services Employees' Union (SISEU) general secretary Philip Lee posted a Facebook update saying he felt "very aggrieved for the 54 workers who were terminated and labelled as poor performers."

Lee said that from the CEO's email, workers still "received bonus and annual increment. Every good HR knows that it is common practice to give warning as an initial step before eventual termination of employment and to give feedback and opportunity for employees to improve. Where is the due process here?"

He added that it was "heartless to the extreme" to sack the workers just before Chinese New Year.

He ended off his note with "Union Wants to See Fairness at MOM."

Here's his full post:

The SISEU is one of 61 unions affiliated to the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC). According to its website, SISEU represents more than 61,000 members who are employed in commercial, social, community & related services technical and consultancy services, printing, engineering, light manufacturing and logistics sector. It is the second largest union in Singapore.

If you like what you read, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest updates.