Six childcare chain staff dismissed by SMS by Ng Jing Yng 04:46 AM Mar 31, 2011SINGAPORE - When mega childcare chain Cherie Hearts sold its local operations last year, the company that won an award last year for progressive and fair employment practices wanted all staff to be retained.
But similar to how it was hit by financial woes recently, fortunes have also changed for six employees. Not only are they now without a job, they were told of it via SMS.
Two earlier text messages, obtained by MediaCorp, first gave them a different impression. An SMS on March 6 read: "... due to furniture delay, please be informed to report for work on March 9". The next, on March 8, said: "The office is not quite ready and we don't have sufficient furniture for all ... take the next week off - you will be fully paid."
Finally, on March 11: "You need not report to our office ... Decision is final".
That decision came from Australian firm G8 Education, which bought Cherie Hearts' childcare business. Recently, the latter's main holding company, Cherie Hearts Group International, was put under receivership, which meant its accounts are frozen.
G8 has assured that childcare operations will not be affected. As it turned out, employees were the ones not spared.
One of the six affected staff, who declined to be named, said: "Those earlier messages indicated that I have a job ... It was a shock."
The 24-year-old former operations manager at Cherie Hearts, whose $2,300 monthly salary contributed the most to her family of eight, felt it was "unprofessional" to notify staff via SMS.
A G8 Education spokesperson told MediaCorp no formal agreement was made during the takeover and it had kept as many employees as possible. She said the earlier SMSes were sent when discussions on their employment were still underway. A text message was the quickest notification method, she added
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