Millennium Hotels and Resorts to axe 159 jobs

Millennium Hotels and Resorts will cut 159 jobs - or 15.2 per cent of its headcount here - as part of a review of its local office and hotel operations amid the pandemic-induced downturn.

"This is a difficult but inevitable move," said a company statement yesterday. "The global pandemic and economic fallout have hit the hotels hard."

It noted yesterday that about one-third of the company's hotels globally are temporarily closed, while "those that remained open were operating at much lower occupancies than before".

The downturn has hit operations and performance hard, added the firm, which has already tightened expenditure across the company, including reducing salaries for senior management by up to 30 per cent.

The retrenchments will affect a higher percentage of foreigners compared with Singaporeans, the company statement said.

The latest retrenchments come after the number of foreign employees in the company had been cut from 520 to 329 since January - a reduction of 37 per cent. The layoffs announced yesterday include the axing of a further 42 foreign staff.

"This will bring our Singapore core from 61 per cent in January to 69 per cent," the firm said.

The group has six hotels here: Orchard Hotel Singapore in Orchard Road, Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel and Copthorne King's Hotel in Havelock Road, M Hotel in Anson Road, and Studio M Hotel and M Social Singapore in Robertson Quay.

It is the global brand of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of City Developments Limited.

Food, Drinks and Allied Workers Union general secretary Tan Hock Soon said the union had been working with Millennium Hotels and Resorts "to implement cost-saving measures, comprising redesigning of jobs, training and redeploying of workers, and carrying out group-wide wage reduction".

He added that the salaries of workers earning below $4,600 have also been protected, with no wage cuts to date.

The company will provide "eligible represented workers with a retrenchment benefit of one month per year of service, advance notice or salary in lieu of notice as provided for under the collective agreements", Mr Tan said.

He added that the union "is grateful that the company continued to honour the collective agreements for this group of workers".

Millennium Hotels and Resorts said it plans to use part of the Government's wage subsidy scheme for Singaporeans to invest in its talent pool as the economy continues to recover.

Mr John Tan, its vice-president of human resources for South-east Asia, said the business "will take time to return to pre-Covid-19 levels, thus the rationalisation is unavoidable" for it to remain viable for employees and stakeholders.

"In addition to the severance package, we will be working with (the union), e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) and Workforce Singapore on providing job assistance and support."

Mr Tan Hock Soon said: "We are appreciative that (the company) had also 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 union has worked with the company to provide job-matching assistance.

The downturn has hit operations and performance hard, added the firm, which has already tightened expenditure across the company, including reducing salaries for senior management by up to 30 per cent.

The retrenchments will affect a higher percentage of foreigners compared with Singaporeans.