NTUC offers support for retrenched Google staff

THE National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) has contacted Google to offer aid to employees affected by the company’s recent round of layoffs in Singapore.

“While Google Singapore is not a unionised company, NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute has reached out to the company to offer (job) placement and networking support,” NTUC deputy secretary-general Cham Hui Fong told The Business Times on Wednesday (Jan 17).

An NTUC affiliate, the Tech Talent Assembly, has also contacted members who listed Google as their employer to offer career-support services, she added.

Employees at Google’s Singapore office were let go as part of a wider retrenchment exercise affecting hundreds of workers across several divisions, sources close to the matter told BT last Friday.

One employee, who was not retrenched and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the move was not surprising. Murmurs of a fresh round of layoffs had been brewing since the company cut 12,000 people from its workforce a year ago.

“The Google I joined definitely isn’t the Google that I’m in now; I still believe it’s a great place to work; but, as with any employer, we should never feel we’re immune to layoffs,” the employee said.

“The only thing I can wish for is that they manage the process of laying people off in the most human-centric way possible,” he said, noting that other companies have retrenched staff in a “horrible way”.

Sources were unable to determine how deep the cuts were in Singapore. No company-wide notice of the retrenchment has been sent by management, they said.

The retrenchments came as Google competes with its big tech rivals to invest in and dominate the field of generative artificial intelligence. Companies such as Amazon have similarly laid off staff to divert resources to the emerging technology.

Last year was a brutal year for tech workers: 262,582 were laid off, according to tech-layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi, up from 164,969 in 2022. This year, as of Wednesday, 7,528 tech workers had been let go.

Businesses coming off the back of the pandemic tech boom found themselves with excess headcount when tougher economic conditions hit. Tech companies have continued shedding staff even well into the new year, putting a spotlight on retrenchment practices.

This week, Google began laying off hundreds in its advertising sales team, US-based media reported, adding to the cuts in the engineering, augmented reality and voice-assistant teams.

E-commerce company Lazada cut staff in Singapore right after the new year, but failed to consult its union. It prompted criticism from NTUC and several industry players.

“Preservation of jobs should be a primary focus, with retrenchment considered only as a last resort,” NTUC’s Cham said in the Wednesday statement.

The Ministry of Manpower has given guidelines on responsible retrenchment. For instance, companies should consult with the relevant unions and have a longer notice period for affected staff.

Companies with at least 10 staff must inform the ministry of their retrenchment exercise within five working days.