Economic Development Board in touch with ONE Championship after layoffs

SINGAPORE: The Economic Development Board (EDB) is in touch with mixed martial arts brand ONE Championship to help affected employees after it conducted a retrenchment exercise on Wednesday (Oct 16). 
Responding to queries from CNA, EDB said on Friday that it is seeing how it can help ONE Championship with its “efforts to help affected employees explore new employment or skills training opportunities”. 
The Singapore-based firm said in a statement on Wednesday that it had decided to lay off “a few dozen” employees, without specifying how many.
One Championship said then that the move was part of its “overall strategic plan to bring the company to profitability in the coming months”. 
EDB, an agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, features ONE Championship on its website as an example of creative entrepreneurship in Singapore. 
It describes ONE Championship as “Asia’s largest sports media property (that) was conceived, created and based out of Singapore”.
In 2018, EDB featured ONE Championship and its chief executive officer Chatri Sityodtong as part of its brand campaign to showcase Singapore as an attractive location for companies to pursue creative entrepreneurship. 
EDB said on Friday: “Companies may review their operations in Singapore from time to time due to market shifts or changes to their business strategies.”
At the time of the layoffs, ONE Championship had not held a mixed martial arts event in Singapore for over a year, with most of its shows in Bangkok.
ONE Championship’s layoffs are one in several high-profile retrenchment exercises carried out by firms in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, technology firm Dyson and electronics giant Samsung announced layoffs of staff, including those in their Singapore offices.
On Thursday, fashion retailer Love, Bonito announced that it laid off almost 7 per cent of its global headcount, including 14 roles in Singapore.
Speaking to CNA on the condition of anonymity, one retrenched staff member said that murmurs of the retrenchment exercise had been in the works for several weeks. 
The ex-employee told CNA that the entire company was invited to a virtual meeting with Mr Sityodtong. This seemed unusual, said the former employee. 
“Usually, company meetings are all in person in a boardroom,” he said.
“When I saw that it was only (virtual), then I expected (layoffs) because this is exactly what they did in the last round in 2020.” 
In 2020, ONE Championship cut 20 per cent of its staff worldwide amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“During the meeting … (Mr Sityodtong) said that after the meeting, if you get a call, you’re out. If don’t get a call, you’re safe, which is a ****ing nerve-wracking way to do it,” the ex-employee said. 
In the end, he got the dreaded call. In a smaller meeting, the company explained that he was being laid off as a cost-cutting measure. 
He said that the decision was especially striking, given reports on the same day of ONE Championship raising at least US$50 million from investors, including Qatar Investment Authority.
Another source with close knowledge of the brand said that he knew about the retrenchment plans a week ago, but was told by ONE Championship to keep the information to himself. 
“There have been rumours for a while apparently in the workforce,” he said. 
According to the ex-employee, the compensation package was two weeks’ pay for every year of service, on top of one month of notice-period pay, and encashed leave. 
About 30 to 40 staff members in the Singapore office were laid off, the ex-employee estimated, and said that those who got the axe were locked out of their computers immediately after receiving the bad news. 
Looking back at his years working there, he said he enjoyed his role and working with his colleagues. 
“It was a good job for me … so to go like that is kind of disappointing (and) there’s nothing I can do about it,” he said. 
“If the management feels like this is the direction they need to take to cut costs, then that’s on them.”