The current economic climate has caused employers to focus on managing their business in an efficient manner without causing major disruption to operations. Some of the measures taken involve downsizing the workforce, temporary lay-off, and other cost-cutting measures.

Retrenchment is the dismissal of employees who have become surplus to the needs of the organisation. Retrenchmentor downsizing can happen when the business no longer requires the same number of employees it used to because thefunctions of the employee have either ceased or diminished to a significant extent. This could be caused by variousfactors such as loss of profits, lack of business, change of business direction, outsourcing of functions, or right-sizingexercises. It is common to have employees disputing the employer’s decision to retrench. The uninformed employersalso risk running afoul of the law when they fail to comply with proper retrenchment procedures.

Mr Heng Poh Suan started his career as a Labour Officer in Kuala Kangsar in 1975. At the Labour Department he was enforcing thevarious Labour Legislations. In 1983 he was transferred to the Industrial Relations Department. He was the Assistant Director ofIndustrial Relations from 1983 till 2001. He left the Industrial Relations Department in 2002 to join the Malaysian EmployersFederation as their Industrial Relations Consultant. In 2005 he joined the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers as their HumanResource/Industrial Relations Advisor. He left FMM at the end of June 2021 and is currently a Training Facilitator and IndustrialRelations Advisor at ECI HR Solutions Sdn Bhd.