H&M East Asia regional staff, including those in S'pore, asked to reapply for roles in restructuring exercise

H&M is asking its East Asia regional staff, including those in Singapore, to reapply for roles as part of a restructuring exercise.

Unsuccessful employees will reportedly face "mutual separation" according to local employment laws, CNA reported, adding that it is unclear which markets are affected, and the number of employees impacted.

Prior to this, H&M Group had 368 employees in Singapore spanning brands which included H&M, COS and "& Other Stories", according to CNA.

Available roles

Three employees who wished to remain anonymous told CNA that staff may reapply for 178 roles.

Employees have yet to be laid off since the process is ongoing, CNA reported, adding that restructuring and staffing decisions are to take effect by Jul. 1.

An employee noted that among the available roles, 80 are in the Southeast Asia offices, mostly in Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur, Philippines' Manila and Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City.

CNA reported that four of these roles will be based in Singapore and this includes legal functions.

Employee interviews, evaluations

In addition, roles previously in Singapore are being moved to Kuala Lumpur and Manila, CNA reported another employee as saying.

East Asia employees had previously been asked to participate in a staff "calibration" exercise by May 21.

This means employees will complete a survey and nominate themselves for two available roles, with contribution ratings and recent disciplinary records being used in determining possible company placements.

CNA reported that after employee interviews and evaluations scheduled until Jun. 19, employees will get the results by mid-June.

One employee said the restructuring had previously been discussed at earlier town halls with global teams.

An employee also plans to decide whether to relocate according to the details of the new compensation package should they land a new role, CNA reported.

Noting that the other countries such as Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, where positions are available, have higher tax rates than Singapore, the employee said this could make any offer less attractive.

H&M responds

Responding to Mothership's queries, H&M said: "At H&M, we are constantly working on improvements to adapt to our customers' expectations.

It added that as part of that, it "regularly reviews how we work" to ensure the organisation remains flexible, efficient, and fast-moving.

"Singapore remains an important market to us, and we will continue to have our office located in Singapore," it said.

"We will continue to maintain our retail presence reflecting our long‑term commitment," it added.

"We are fully committed to supporting all of our colleagues in any organisational changes and will continue to fulfil our obligations according to local [labour] law requirements."

H&M said it has no further details to share since this is an "ongoing process".

Background

This comes after an earlier report mentioned that H&M had reportedly announced that it would be relocating its Southeast Asia headquarters from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur.

According to Malay Mail, citing "formal communications" to staff, the Asia-Pacific restructuring exercise would apparently also impact approximately 30 per cent of its regional support workforce.