More than 500 Uber employees in Singapore have been placed on paid leave in the wake of the company’s South-East Asian operations being acquired by rival ride-hailing firm Grab.

According to sources within Uber, the company’s Guoco Tower headquarters was cleared out on Monday (26 March) and employees there were apparently told to vacate the premises by 4pm.

Yahoo News Singapore understands that 50 employees will be redeployed to the Uber office at Mapletree Anson. The remaining staff were placed on paid leave for the next three months as Grab finds new roles for them.

During a phone interview, Grab’s regional head of people operations Ong Chin Yin denied earlier reports and social media posts that “hundreds” of employees had been retrenched.

“There are no layoffs as of today. We are committed to try to find a suitable role for over five hundred Uber people at Grab, and we just need to take time to meet up with them and review them over the course of the next few weeks,” said Ong, who added that no contractors were laid off.

Asked if there was any guarantee that no Uber employees would be laid off at the end of the three-month period, Ong said she could not “foretell whether everyone will accept (the offers made) and whether there’s a right fit for both sides for everyone”.

“We are committed to meet every single person, and we are committed to try our very best to find the right role for them,” she added.

Ong noted that not every one of the 500-odd employees would be on paid leave for the full three months, and that the process of meeting them would begin as soon as possible.

“The people who can find roles earlier, they actually can start work earlier,” she said.

Responding to social media posts regarding Uber employees who had allegedly been given two hours to leave the office, Ong added, “That really wasn’t our call. Their access was also cut very early this morning, and I understand how terrible it can be for some of them.”

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