MahWengKwai & Associates’ Online Talks are presented by video conference to inculcate knowledge and awareness for our clients, potential clients and in-house counsel.
On 13 April 2020, our Senior Associate, Ms Diana Cheak alongside our Associate, Ms Janessa Kok from the firm’s Employment and Industrial Relations Department delivered an online talk on retrenchment during the Covid-19 pandemic . The talk focused on a number of key issues such as, (1) the employer’s rights and obligations; (2) the options available to employers; (3) what retrenchment is all about; (4) the retrenchment process; and (5) how to justify the retrenchment decision.
In light of the current economic situation, apart from highlighting the employer’s rights and obligations, Diana also offered a wide range of suggestions and options available to the employers during the MCO period. Diana further explained the definition of retrenchment in a comprehensive manner and provided the participants with a number of decided cases.
Finally, Janessa went on to discuss the issues pertaining to surplus of employees, the retrenchment process as well as the justification of a retrenchment exercise. Towards the end of the session, Janessa concluded with a number of practical examples of proper documentation and offered a few tips to employers on how to keep a proper paper trail.
A copy of the talk slides in PDF format is available for download here. A video recording of the talk can also be found on our YouTube channel here.
Note: This article does not constitute legal advice to any specific case. The facts and circumstances of each and every case will differ and therefore will require specific legal advice. Feel free to contact us for complimentary legal consultation.
