How Workforce Policy Affects Retrenchment
You wonder if a company workforce policy explains why you were selected.
Some workers hear an internal workforce policy mentioned as part of the explanation for a retrenchment, without ever being told clearly how it applied to their specific case.
What It Means
Some Malaysian employers operate internal policies about the composition of their workforce, alongside ordinary business considerations, when planning staffing decisions such as a retrenchment exercise.
Whatever policy an employer follows internally, the law still expects the actual selection of who is retrenched to be genuine, objective, and properly explained.
Why It Matters To You
The usual, objective starting point for selection is a principle like releasing the most recently hired staff first, and any departure from that still needs sound, specific justification.1
A vague reference to a broader internal policy, without a clear, individual explanation for why you specifically were selected, is worth questioning rather than accepting quietly.
Does This Affect A Retrenchment Selection
Ask your employer directly, in writing, why you specifically were chosen, and compare the answer against colleagues in similar roles who were kept on.
Read about retrenchment and LIFO for the fuller picture of how a fair selection process is meant to work.
If the explanation does not hold up, check your 60-day window to challenge it on the deadline calculator.
Telling us how the retrenchment selection was explained to you helps us see whether the process looks genuinely fair.
Common questions
Can an internal workforce policy be used to justify who is retrenched?
Any internal policy an employer relies on to depart from the usual objective selection approach still needs to be explained with sound, specific reasons connected to the genuine needs of the business.
What should I do if I suspect the selection was not fair?
Set out clearly what you were told, who else was affected, and any pattern you noticed, then have a lawyer review whether the selection process looks genuinely objective.
Sources
- Last In First Out is the conventional, objective principle for selecting employees for retrenchment, and an employer may depart from it only if it can justify doing so with sound reasons, for a genuine redundancy. Richard Wee Chambers, 5 Points on the Law of Retrenchment in Malaysia
Keep reading
Telling us how the retrenchment selection was explained to you helps us see whether the process looks genuinely fair.