Suncity VIP Club – the non-listed arm of Suncity Group that operates VIP clubs across Asia – has announced a voluntary redundancy scheme for employees as it looks to streamline operations due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a memo sent to staff late last week and seen by Inside Asian Gaming, the scheme, referred to by Suncity as a “Personal Career Reshaping Plan”, offer employees who put themselves forward for voluntary redundancy certain bonuses and benefits “such as additional allowances for employees over 60, full payout of provident fund employer contributions, extension of medical insurance coverage and career planning support services.”
The memo, signed by CEO Alvin Chau, emphasizes that the project is entirely voluntary.
“The [COVID-19] pandemic has brought severe challenges to the world and all industries are facing huge challenges,” it reads.
“It is difficult for companies to survive alone and their performance has been severely affected. In the past year or so, we have experienced an unprecedented storm together.
“For the company’s sustainable development, we must change our strategy, optimize the organizational structure, retain the core business and respond to changes in the market environment.”
Introduction of the voluntary redundancy scheme comes almost a year after Chau took the unprecedented step of disclosing the finances of Suncity VIP Club due to unsubstantiated rumors that Suncity was unable to cover the financial deposits of its clients.
“We have the capability and enough capital to offset any bad debts and chip deposits of all clients,” Chau said at the time. “I would like to reiterate that Suncity is a very stable financial platform.”
Suncity Group’s Hong Kong-listed arm launched its first integrated resort, Hoiana in Vietnam, last year and is pushing ahead with development of a major casino-hotel project in Manila plus Phase 2 development of Russian IR Tigre de Cristal.
However, the company recently withdrew from the RFP process in Wakayama, Japan, having previously outlined detailed plans to develop an integrated resort in the coastal prefecture.
