About 5,000 to be retrenched

The financial crisis is slowing waging its way to Malaysia, and today, our Human Resources Minister announced that about 5,000 Malaysians are going to get retrenched in the 1st quarter of 2009. And that's the planned ones. The actual number could actually be even higher.

For full article, read it here .

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PETALING JAYA: At least 4,749 workers, mostly from the electronics industry, will be retrenched by 137 employers in the next three months, Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said.

He said this included the recent retrenchment of 1,500 Western Digital factory workers in Kuching.

“My ministry on its part will ensure that the workers get the compensation due to them from the companies.”

He said under the Employment Act’s Employment (Termination And Lay-off Benefits) Regulations, workers would be compensated a part of their salary for each year of work.

For workers who have been with a company for two years or less, compensation would be 10 days of salary per year of work.

For those between two and five years, it would be 15 days of salary per year and for those above five years, it would be 20 days of salary per year.

Dr Subramaniam said the Government would also look into getting alternative employment for these retrenched workers or put them into training before looking for alternative employment.

“So far, we have not held dialogues with these workers but we will be contacting them soon and setting up counselling sessions for them,” he said after a dialogue with Malaysian Training Providers Berhad.

Dr Subramaniam said he was not sure whether the number of retrenched workers would increase but added that some things were beyond the Government’s control.

“When a company is facing losses, we cannot force them to keep people. However, we will ensure the retrenchment is done fairly for the workers,” he said.

Dr Subramaniam also issued a statement that any employer intending to retrench, lay off, offer voluntary separation schemes or reduce salaries would have to inform the ministry 30 days before such action is taken.

“Employers that do not follow this can be fined up to RM10,000,” he said.

He added that the ministry would also be setting up operation centres at the district level to monitor the status of companies within their jurisdiction.

“This information will be passed on to the state level before being compiled at the Federal level,” Dr Subramaniam said, adding that this would allow the ministry to be updated.



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