Lazada workers laid off to get bigger pay after negotiations

This illustration shows the Singapore Lazada website as of June 20, 2017. Photo: Reuters

Some former employees of e-commerce giant Lazada who were laid off in January will receive extra pay following the company’s negotiations with Singapore’s trade unions.

According to several former employees who spoke with several former employees, a number of employees will receive an additional two weeks’ pay for each year of service, to be paid within approximately two weeks. Times of the Strait on condition of anonymity.

The rest will only receive “training support” of A$1,200 ($888.76), which will be paid in August.

The former employees were from Lazada Singapore and Lazada Southeast Asia. Initially, Lazada only offered them two weeks’ salary for a year of work, which was below industry norms.

The Food, Beverage and Allied Workers Union has negotiated with Lazada for additional benefits for its member workers.

National Trades Union Congress general secretary Ng Chee Meng said in a Facebook post on May 21 that the union was closing cases with affected eligible union members.

In January, Lazada laid off an undisclosed number of employees in Singapore and Southeast Asia.

CNBC said at the time that the layoffs would impact all functions, including trading, retail and marketing.

The termination affected various departments of the company, including regional offices in Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Lazada became a subsidiary of Alibaba Group after the Chinese tech giant took control of it in 2016.