800 workers retrenched

Updated: 30th October 2008, 1709 hrs

IM Flash Technologies lays off 800

Eight hundred people recruited by IMFlash Technologies for its intended plant in Singapore, have been laid off. Internal sources say the retrenchments were made known to staff early this month. An affected employee spoke to 938LIVE on condition of anonymity. "What Intel wants to do is they want to set up a new base here in Singapore, but because of the current market conditions, apparently they tried to postpone the opening of the base, they postponed it for the next 3 to 4 years and they just lay-off everybody." The company is a joint-venture between technology giants Micron and Intel. It had planned to build a plant costing nearly $5 billion to make cutting-edge memory chips. However, construction of the high-tech factory at Bendeemeer Road was pushed back due to the worsening economic conditions. It's understood that a large percentage of workers that had been recruited were foreign workers. Some 300 hired as production operators, mostly from India, have already left the company. They were given either two weeks or a one month layoff notice period. A large number of staff had undergone training in the US in preparation for the plant's original start-up due to open later this year. The training period lasted for 3 to 6 months, and for some as long as 1 year. Officials from IM Flash Technologies could not be reached for comments despite several attempts. [I just found this piece of news and update it here] - wong chee tat :)