SINGAPORE: Online travel platform Agoda has axed its customer support roles in its Singapore, Hungary and China offices while creating new positions in other geographic locations, the company confirmed on Wednesday (Sep 17).
CNA understands that about 50 employees in Singapore were affected by the move.
The employees were informed of the retrenchment exercise during a closed “unannounced” town hall on Aug 4, which affected those working in customer experience group departments based in Singapore, Shanghai and Budapest, according to an employee from a department affected by the staff cuts.
The roles affected ranged from customer specialist to regional manager, and comprise multilingual support teams to resolve traveller queries, said the employee who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In response to CNA’s queries, Agoda spokesperson said the cuts are “in line with Agoda’s continuous improvement drive to enhance operational efficiency”.
“We have phased out customer support roles in our offices in Budapest, Shanghai, and Singapore while creating new positions in other geographic locations,” said the spokesperson.
“This move is designed to consolidate our customer support teams in areas where we have the strongest operational flexibility and capability as we continue to grow our business.”
In one portion of the severance agreement seen by CNA, employees were instructed not to make reports with any government agencies, statutory boards or trade unions including the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) and Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP).
They were also asked to refrain from bringing any mediation requests, claims or proceedings on their employment or termination against the company.
Those who do so and breach the terms in the agreement will have their severance entitlements revoked, the document stated. If any severance payments were made by Agoda to the employee, they would have to repay the company “in full” and “on demand”.
This sum shall be recoverable as a debt, together with all costs, including legal, incurred by Agoda in recovering the sum, according to the document.
In response to CNA, Agoda’s spokesperson said the company is committed to retaining a strong local presence in Singapore and “continues to follow relevant local laws”.
“Impacted employees were given every support throughout the transition process in line with industry standards. During this time, employees were free to seek alternative legal options or engage with local authorities if they so wished,” said the spokesperson.
CNA has reached out to Agoda’s spokesperson on why this clause was included in the severance agreement.
“PART OF A QUOTA”
Despite these statements from the company, one employee said that the layoffs and the severance terms were unfair.
The employee, who was informed that his last day of work is Sep 3, said management at Agoda had explained during multiple internal local town halls across the years that staff under the Singapore customer experience group existed “mainly to satisfy the local workforce quota” to allow the company to hire more foreigners under the S Pass scheme.
The scheme is meant for skilled workers and professionals who want to work in Singapore. The foreign worker quota is calculated based on the average number of local employees in the company over a period of last three months.
Speaking to CNA, the employee, who has been part of the Singapore customer experience group since joining Agoda, said they were “disappointed” with the way employees were treated as just “part of a quota”.
“And disposing (of) us when we are not of value to them anymore or being a high ‘cost’ to them when lower cost options become available,” said the staff member.
On the clauses in the severance agreement, the employee said: “(It) really sounded like keeping us in a hush to avoid causing further bad PR (public relations) that the company could face.”
CNA has also reached out to Agoda on these allegations related to the workforce quota.
