Millennium Hotels and Resorts cuts 159 jobs

They will also reduce 42 foreign workers from their headcount.

Millennium Hotels and Resorts (MHR) has slashed 159 roles, or 15.2% of its SIngapore-based workforce, a press release revealed.

From January to mid-August, it has reduced its headcount from 520 to 329, constituting a reduction of 37%. Following this lay-off, there will also be an additional reduction of 42 foreign employees, in total reducing their foreign employee dependency by 45% and will bring MHR’s Singapore core from 61% in January to 69%.

As at 30 June, nearly one-third of the company’s over 145 hotels globally were temporarily closed and those that remained open were operating at much lower occupancies than before. This severely impacted MHR’s operations and performance.

MHR has implemented several measures including the tightening of company-wide expenditures, salary reductions for the senior leaders of up to 30% with graduated pay reductions for other corporate and hotel level employees as well as laying off and furloughing excess manpower across various regions.

“To achieve a fair and responsible outcome for the 159 affected employees, MHR management has actively engaged and collaborated with the Food Drinks and Allied Workers Union (FDAWU). Over and above the severance package from MHR, post-employment support in consultation with FDAWU, Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) and Workforce Singapore (WSG) will also be offered to the affected employees,” it said in a statement.