Embattled property agency PropertyLimBrothers (PLB) is laying off employees from its media arm, less than three months after allegations about an extramarital affair between two senior executives thrust the firm into the spotlight.
PLB Media employed close to 100 staff as at February, and City & Country understands about 90% of staff were affected in this retrenchment exercise.
City & Country understands PLB has gutted its editorial, tech, video and overseas teams, which are under PLB Media. These employees provided research, marketing and social media support for the agency’s realtors.
Some 90% of PLB Media’s video team, which had close to 50 staff, were affected in this retrenchment exercise.
City & Country understands that affected employees were informed via meetings with human resource (HR) executives, which began last week.
One affected employee was told to either voluntarily resign or be retrenched, and was given two days to decide. This employee tells City & Country that the retrenchment package offered a week’s salary for each year they had worked at PLB.
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Another affected employee says staff who resigned were also offered the retrenchment package. In addition, they will be allowed to keep their company-provided devices and will receive a recommendation letter for their job search.
In late-January, rumours circulated online that PLB co-founder Melvin Lim and then-vice-president of strategy Grayce Tan were involved in an extramarital affair. Both Lim and Tan are married.
City & Country has contacted PLB co-founder Adrian Lim and interim CEO Marc Chan for more information.
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PLB had 79 registered agents at Feb 5. City & Country understands realtors have left PLB for other agencies in recent months. PLB's 50:50 realtor commission sharing scheme is higher compared to other agencies, and PLB likely faced a drop in revenue as a result.
PLB’s retrenchment package below the norm
Under the Tripartite Advisory on Managing Excess Manpower and Responsible Retrenchment, employers are expected to pay a retrenchment benefit of between two weeks’ to one month’s salary per year of service, in line with the “prevailing norm”.
In unionised companies where the amount of retrenchment benefit is stated in the collective agreement, the “norm” is one month’s salary for each year of service.
However, retrenchment benefits are not mandated by law.
The advisory was last updated in January 2023 by tripartite partners the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF).
Not mandating retrenchment benefits is a “balanced approach” that provides business flexibility while protecting workers, said Senior Minister of State for Manpower and Health Koh Poh Koon in February.
The following month, during the debate on MOM’s budget, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng said his ministry is reviewing suggestions to make advance retrenchment notifications mandatory, as part of a broader look at the Employment Act.
Currently, employers with at least 10 employees must inform MOM within five working days of any employee being informed of their retrenchment.
In 2024, e-commerce firm Lazada apologised after it laid off staff — including regional C-suite executives — from its Singapore office without notifying and consulting the Food, Drinks and Allied Workers Union (FDAWU). The FDAWU is an affiliated union of NTUC.
The Edge Singapore reported that staff who were laid off by Lazada Singapore were offered two weeks' pay for each year that they were employed by the company, below the industry norm.
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