SINGAPORE: Global public relations agency We. Communications has laid off eight employees in Singapore after it decided to “realign” parts of its business, the company confirmed on Friday (Sep 26).
A spokesperson said in response to CNA’s queries that the company continues to have a significant presence in Singapore, and is committed to serving its clients and “investing in our long-term future” here. The affected team members make up 7 per cent of the company’s headcount in Singapore.
The global communications agency serves companies in Singapore such as Sentosa Development Corporation, Scoot and Lazada.
Globally, it counts tech giant Microsoft and fast-food behemoth McDonald’s as its clients.
We. Communications’ statement to CNA did not address questions about the number of staff laid off or the teams affected. Neither did it elaborate on the reason for the layoffs.
An internal email said We. Communications is grappling with rising competition and a trend of clients moving public relations functions into their own companies over the past six to 12 months, reported The Straits Times.
This has created “significant budget gaps for the agency”, the email to staff said.
In June, PRWeek reported that the agency laid off 2 per cent of its global staff.
The company has offices in nine countries including the US, China, Germany and Australia. It is headquartered in Washington and offers public relations, marketing communications and event planning services, among others.
The firm had about 1,300 employees globally as of May, according to an article on the PRWeek website on Jun 30. CNA has asked We. Communications how many employees they have in Singapore.
A spokesperson said making changes to the business was a “difficult decision” that impacted “a small number of roles”.
“Our priority is to support affected colleagues with care and respect,” the spokesperson said, adding that it includes providing strong references, access to job search resources and “optional reduced-capacity contracts”.
The company said it followed the responsible retrenchment recommendations outlined by Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower (MOM), and has informed the ministry about the layoffs.
Companies must pay all salaries including unused annual leave to employees on their last day of work, according to MOM’s website.
The website states that the prevailing norm is to pay a retrenchment benefit of between two weeks to one month salary per year of service.
We. Communications said it has provided severance packages that “go above local requirements to ease the transition”.
Mr Desmond Tan, executive secretary of the Singapore Industrial and Services Employees’ Union (SISEU), which is affiliated with the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), said that NTUC and SISEU “stand ready” to offer help and resources to help members and workers transition to new job opportunities and provide financial support.
Although We. Communications is a non-unionised company in Singapore, he said in his statement on Friday that some employees are members of SISEU.
“In retrenchment exercises where there are members working in non-unionised companies, NTUC’s affiliated unions and/or associations will extend assistance to our members should they be affected by the exercises,” said Mr Tan, adding that this includes connecting them to the labour movement’s network.
Mr Tan added that eligible union members can also make use of the Union Training Assistance Programme to offset training costs if they require skills upgrading.
Companies such as Agoda, Mediacorp, Changi Travel Services and Ninja Van have laid off staff in recent months.
