Workers at Ninja Van-owned software firm protest unpaid salaries (update)

ECRM Nobita workers say they haven’t been paid since July.

Employees at a Vietnam-based software firm owned by logistics major Ninja Van have staged protests over alleged unpaid salaries and overdue social insurance contributions.

One affected worker told Tech in Asia that ECRM Nobita, a company that offers management solutions for ecommerce vendors, has not been paying its staff in full since July this year. Workers have contacted local labor officials to intervene in the matter.

The protests, which are ongoing at the Hanoi and Vinh offices, come after several attempts by employees to communicate with ECRM Nobita’s HR and management teams, including a virtual meeting with Boxian Tan, co-founder and chief product officer at Singapore-headquartered Ninja Van.

However, the source said ECRM Nobita employees were not permitted to speak at the meeting, and no meaningful resolution was reached.

In a statement to Tech in Asia, Tan explained that after learning about ECRM Nobita’s failure to fully pay its employees, Ninja Van dispatched its own teams to investigate the issue.

A virtual meeting was then held to address all ECRM Nobita employees, who are spread across three cities in Vietnam, according to Tan.

“We did not take any questions during the announcement as we had scheduled in-person meetings post-announcement for better discussion in private,” he said. “As the owner of ECRM Nobita, we are committed to honoring our obligations and doing all we can to resolve the issue for ECRM Nobita’s employees.”

The co-founder also stressed that the subsidiary is “independent of Ninja Van’s core operations.”

According to Ninja Van, 61 ECRM Nobita employees were affected and an internal review is underway. The issue is expected to be resolved within the next two weeks.

In July, Ninja Van conducted a second round of layoffs that primarily affected junior workers at its tech offices in Indonesia and Vietnam as well as 5% of junior tech positions in Singapore.

 See also: Challenging times ahead for Ninja Van as losses spike and growth slows

Update (September 13, 5:10 p.m. SGT): This article has been updated with additional information from Ninja Van about the number of affected employees, the expected timeline for resolving the issue, and further details on where the protests occurred.