Written Answer to PQ on Agoda's severance agreement clauses

NOTICE PAPER NO. 145 OF 2025 FOR SITTING ON OR AFTER 16 OCTOBER 2025
QUESTION NO. 729 FOR ORAL ANSWER

MP: Ms He Ting Ru

To ask the Minister for Manpower since the start of 2025 (a) how many companies have failed to inform the Ministry before they started retrenching their employees; (b) whether an online travel booking platform is one of such companies that failed to inform the Ministry; and (c) what actions were taken by the Ministry in these cases of non-compliance of the Mandatory Retrenchment Notification.

Answer:

1. To recap, it was reported in September 2025 that Agoda had carried out a retrenchment exercise in early August 2025.

2. Agoda complied with the requirement for all employers with 10 or more employees to submit a Mandatory Retrenchment Notification (MRN) to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) within 5 working days after informing affected employees of their retrenchment. Employers are not required to submit an MRN before retrenching workers. This strikes a balance between allowing employers sufficient time to finalise their decisions and collate the required information for submission, while still allowing for the prompt provision of career facilitation services and programmes to assist the affected workers. Nonetheless, NTUC has proposed for the Government to consider advance notification of retrenchment.