Giant Staff Allegedly Received Only One-Week Notice About Closure

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Staff of Giant claim they were only told about the closure of five Giant outlets a week ago, with the shuttering looming in three days’ time.

Choo Choy May

An employee alleged that staff were told that the reason for the closure of the five branches, including the one that they were working in, was only because the lease was expiring soon, FMT news portal reported.

 However, when news broke on Oct 26 about the impending closure of Giant hypermarkets in Sri Manjung, Perak; Sungai Petani, Kedah; SACC and Selayang Lama, Selangor; and Sibu, Sarawak, many social media users linked it to the state of the economy.

Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin later rebutted allegations the closure was due to the country’s economy, saying it was problems with the leases of premises and also part of the company’s “downsizing business strategy”.

Owner of Giant, GCH Retail (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd had said the decision to close the five outlets was made after it had “reviewed its operations to improve efficiencies and productivity”.

As for the future of the staff from the five outlets, which will cease operations from Sunday, they were reportedly given an option to either receive a compensation or work at another branch – depending on whether there are vacancies.

“The branch will be closed on November 5 but we will still be working until stocks are cleared which might take about a month,” an unnamed staff was quoted as saying.