Japan’s Sega Sammy Holdings has reduced its workforce by some 729 employees following completion of a group-wide voluntary redundancy program.
The program, first announced late last year in response to financial pressures brought about by COVID-19, had aimed to find 650 staff to volunteer for retirement by offering special retirement allowances and re-employment support for those who stepped forward.
On Friday, Sega Sammy said the application period had finished as of 25 December 2020 with 729 employees now set to depart the company on 28 February. It had previously counted a workforce of 9,051 employees as of 30 September 2020.
In a filing, Sega Sammy revealed that it had set aside JPY10 billion (US$96.3 million) in expected expenses to cover the voluntary redundancy program, although actual expenses are expected to be closer to JPY9.5 billion (US$91.5 million), which will be recorded as extraordinary losses in the fiscal year ending March 2021.
Sega Sammy, which is expected to take part in Yokohama’s upcoming RFP to develop an integrated resort, said last year that, “Voluntary retirement is believed necessary to realize cost reductions focusing on fixed costs and building a more efficient system in order to achieve an early recovery of profits and sustainable growth in the future.”