Ex-Honestbee staff who were transferred to separate entity seek unpaid wages

Those whose employment contracts are under Fundeology “will not be entitled to any liquidation proceeds of Honestbee,” the startup’s liquidators from BDO Advisory said.

According to several Fundeology ex-employees, the entity owes them about two months of salaries, while Honestbee itself does not owe them outstanding payments.

The former staff members said they were asked to resign from Honestbee in November last year and sign a new employment contract under Fundeology, with their job scopes remaining unchanged. The move was incited by technical issues around the company’s foreign worker quota, according to Ong.

Two sources estimated that about 80 Honestbee employees signed the contracts with Fundeology at the time. Most were later retrenched in March, around the time Honestbee lost the support of key investor Brian Koo.

According to four ex-Fundeology employees, the company had offered them S$1,000 (US$732) each, regardless of how much they were owed.

In contrast to the employees of Fundeology, those contracted to Honestbee are unlikely to receive anything from the liquidation. “I am also owed my salary at Honestbee and I don’t expect to receive anything,” said Ong.

See also:

• Honestbee founder’s biggest lie in a web of deceit
• As Honestbee sought $150m, its ex-CEO was absent from pitch meetings
• Honestbee investigating transactions under ex-CEO Joel Sng

Currency converted from Singapore dollar to US dollar: US$1 = S$1.37.