Retrenched From A Penang Job
Your Penang job was cut in a downturn and you doubt why you were chosen.
Penang has electronics and semiconductor factories around the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone, and more industry across the bridge in Butterworth. Whenever a plant cuts staff, the same retrenchment rules apply.
Where a Penang claim is heard
You start with a written Section 20 representation to the Director General of Industrial Relations.
A case that fails to settle at conciliation moves to the Industrial Court, which has a branch in Penang. JPPM confirms which branch hears it.
How a retrenchment should run
A genuine redundancy needs a real drop in demand behind it and a fair order of selection. That is conventionally last in, first out within the affected category.1
Be alert if a plant cut a whole shift and then rehired for similar roles once volumes recovered. That is worth questioning.
If a claim succeeds, an award can include back wages up to the cap for your confirmed or probationary status.2
Sending your facts from either side of the strait
You can request lawyer contact with general facts by message from Bayan Lepas or Butterworth alike. Your retrenchment letter, payslips and any record of who was kept on can help an identified lawyer later, once they have contacted you and requested them.
Conciliation still needs you to attend in person. JPPM tells you when and where.
Your next step
Write down what happened at your Penang job in order, with a date for each event. Keep your termination letter and shift records.
Read about building an evidence file before drafting your representation. Then confirm your window with the deadline calculator.
If you want a lawyer to act, request lawyer contact first; only after an identified independent lawyer has contacted you and specifically requested the material, send those papers and the date you were let go directly to that lawyer. They can review the facts and reply on whether and how they can take the claim forward.
If you were retrenched in Pulau Pinang and doubt the reason or the selection, send the date you were let go and what the employer told you. An independent employment lawyer serving Penang may review the facts and reply on whether and how they can act.
For people seeking legal representation. For general information, please use our guides and tools.
First contact: general facts only, such as date, location, employment status and a short summary. Keep documents private until an identified independent lawyer contacts you and specifically requests them.
Common questions
My Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone plant retrenched my whole shift during an order slowdown. Is that automatically fair?
Not automatically. A genuine downturn can justify retrenchment, but the employer must still use a fair order of selection, conventionally last in, first out within the same category of staff.
I was on probation at a Butterworth manufacturing plant when I was retrenched. Does that lower what I could receive?
Back wages at the Industrial Court are generally capped lower for a probationer than a confirmed employee, at twelve months rather than twenty four. Your real status is still worth checking, because a role can count as confirmed whatever the label says.
Does it matter whether my plant is on the island or in Seberang Perai?
No. The same process applies on the island and in Seberang Perai, and JPPM confirms which Industrial Court branch hears the case.
Sources
- In a retrenchment the conventional selection principle is Last In First Out within the affected category, an employer may depart from it only with justification, and the redundancy itself must be genuine. Richard Wee Chambers
- Back wages at the Industrial Court are generally capped at twenty four months pay for a confirmed employee and twelve months for a probationer under the Second Schedule of the Industrial Relations Act 1967. Donovan & Ho
Keep reading
If you were retrenched in Pulau Pinang and doubt the reason or the selection, send the date you were let go and what the employer told you. An independent employment lawyer serving Penang may review the facts and reply on whether and how they can act.
For people seeking legal representation. For general information, please use our guides and tools.
First contact: general facts only, such as date, location, employment status and a short summary. Keep documents private until an identified independent lawyer contacts you and specifically requests them.