Surbana Jurong reported to terminate about 50 staff in Singapore

Temasek Holdings-owned infrastructure consultant Surbana Jurong has terminated a number of employees as part of a performance management review, as reported in The Straits Times last Saturday. According to the report, a spokesman said that "less than 0.5% of its global workforce of 13,000 had been affected".

Additionally, the report stated that all affected workers are based in Singapore where the firm employs about 3,000 workers.

In the report, a spokesman mentioned that the terminations were not a retrenchment exercise, but "rather, a small number of poor performers were communicated with and released".

Speaking to Human Resources, a company spokesperson commented: “We categorically state that there was no retrenchment. In-line with the company's continuous focus on being a high performance driven organisation, about 50 poor performers were released.”

It is also believed that affected staff were handed letters about two weeks ago, and took the issue to union officials and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) last week.

The workers are represented by the Singapore Industrial and Services Employees' Union and the Building Construction and Timber Industries Employees' Union (BATU), both affiliated to NTUC.

NTUC assistant secretary-general Zainal Sapari, who is also executive secretary of BATU, said that the unions are working with Surbana on how to help the affected union members. He commented: "We are still talking to the company."

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