The art of firing Singapore staff

SAN ANTONIO (Chemicals Confidential)--This email is doing the rounds about a fire drill in Singapore, but is it an urban myth or true?  According to a diary piece in the Times:

The alarm went off at 4pm and employees duly filed out. No sign of a fire, but they waited for ten minutes anyway.

Then a manager made an announcement: "Dear employees, with melting heart I am making this announcement that for many of you this will be your last fire evacuation drill." Because of the recession, almost half the staff were being laid off. Those who were going would find, on trying to reenter the building, that their swipe passes would not work. The layoffs were being done this way to avoid "any violent outbursts inside the office".