SINGAPORE, Aug 19 — Hospitality and real estate group Millennium Hotels and Resorts has axed 159 employees here in a restructuring exercise induced by the Covid-19 pandemic, it said today.

Of the employees that were let go, 42 are foreigners, the firm said in a statement, adding that it has reduced its foreign employee population from 520 to 329 — a 37 per cent cut — over the last eight months.

Therefore, the firm’s proportion of Singaporean employees has also increased from these measures — from 61 per cent in January to 69 per cent in August.

The group runs six hotels in Singapore — Orchard Hotel Singapore, Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel and Copthorne King’s Hotel on Havelock Road, M Hotel on Anson Road, as well as Studio M Hotel and M Social Singapore in Robertson Quay.

In all, the latest exercise will affect about 15 per cent of the firm’s Singapore-based workforce. Following the retrenchments, it has a total of 895 employees in Singapore.

Millennium Hotels and Resorts had announced in February that it had laid off some employees, though its chief operating officer Kieran Twomey said the retrenchment exercise was unrelated to the coronavirus outbreak.

The firm did not reveal the number of workers who were affected by the February exercise.

The latest layoffs at Millennium Hotels and Resorts come amid a spate of retrenchments announced by other firms.

Media company Singapore Press Holdings, Resorts World Sentosa and aerospace firm Pratt & Whitney have all axed workers in recent months because of the coronavirus outbreak.

In the media statement, Millennium Hotels and Resorts said the move to restructure its operations was a "difficult but inevitable (one) considering the business recovery outlook on the hospitality industry caused by the Covid-19 pandemic”.

It added that because of the coronavirus outbreak, the firm at one point had to temporarily close almost one-third of its 145 hotels globally.

The hotels that remained open also operated at a much lower occupancy rate than before, the firm said.

"This severely impacted Millennium Hotels and Resorts’ operations and performance.”

To achieve a fair and responsible outcome for the 159 employees who were let go, Millennium Hotels and Resorts said its management has "actively engaged and collaborated with the Food Drinks and Allied Workers Union (FDAWU)”.

For example, it has worked together with the union, the Employment and Employability Institute and Workforce Singapore to provide post-employment support for the affected staff.

The firm added that it also plans to tap the funding provided by the government’s wage subsidy scheme to invest in upskilling its existing talent pool as the economy recovers.

Union involved in retrenchment negotiations

In a separate statement today, FDAWU said it has been working with Millennium Hotels and Resorts to implement various cost-saving measures.

This includes redesigning jobs, training and redeploying workers, and carrying out group-wide wage reductions.

The union said that the salaries of workers earning below S$4,600 (RM14,070) were protected in these exercises and no salary cuts have been performed to date for this group.

FDAWU also secured the retrenchment package for workers collectively represented under the Collective Agreements in four out of six of the firm’s hotels, and one corporate office.

The four unionised hotels are Copthorne King’s Hotel Singapore, Grand Copthorne Waterfront, Orchard Hotel SIngapore and M Hotel Singapore.

"Millennium Hotels and Resorts had honoured the Collective Agreements and provided eligible representative workers with retrenchment benefits of one month per year of service and advance notice or salary in lieu of notice as provided for under the agreements,” FDAWU said.

"FDAWU assures workers that the union is ready to help those with hardship to find assistance and take on jobs that are available even if it means a wage cut in the interim,” it added.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Millennium Hotels and Resorts said it has implemented several cost-cutting measures to cope with the ongoing global crisis.

This includes tightening company-wide expenditures, salary cuts of up to 30 per cent for the senior leaders, with graduated pay reductions for other corporate and hotel level employees, as well as laying off and furloughing excess manpower across various regions. — TODAY