Surbana axes 50 'poor performers'; MOM in talks with unions

Singapore

BARELY two weeks into the new year, news broke last Saturday that Surbana Jurong, a Temasek Holdings-owned infrastructure consultancy, had cut dozens of staff from its payroll.

Amid an uncertain economic outlook and a lacklustre labour market, the immediate thought was that those affected had been retrenched, but a company spokesman stressed to The Business Times that "about 50" Singapore-based employees had been let go purely for performance reasons, and that it was not a retrenchment exercise.

The number works out to less than 0.4 per cent of Surbana's 13,000-strong global workforce.

Responding to BT's queries, the spokesman said: "We categorically state that there was no retrenchment. In line with the company's conti…