[Question] Retrenchment - some advice please

[Macza]

Good day

Please can someone help me with some retrenchment advice?

We have just been given notice that the process is about to start and I wanted to ask about the legalities of our newest employee.

We are a very small company, 8 employees and although everyone knew that we were having financial problems, our MD decided to hire a new person. This person would amount to a 2IC and would be earning a large salary and was brought in to make sales, amongst other things. They are only in their 2nd month of employment.

Would we be able to use this to avoid being retrenched ourselves? There are apparently 3 people who are being considered for retrenchment. Most of them have been around 3 years or more and I would guess, earn less than half of his salary. However, I do realise that our boss might try and say that she employed him to make sales, i.e., to make money so that she wouldn't have to close the entire company down.

What would your view on this be?

Also, is there a timeline as we have been told that it would all be completed by the 20th December. Merry Christmas everyone!

Any advice would be appreciated. We have all been served with the same letter, so I am sure legal advice has been taken, but I wondered if we had any recourse based on the newest employee, or anything else for that matter.

Many thanks for your time.

[Dave A]

The first step in the process is to ask for suggestions that might obviate the need for retrenchments. Might be an idea to think about that some.

I stand to be corrected, but the next step is to identify the categories and numbers of employees that need to be retrenched. The last in - first out principle then applies to the employees that fall in these categories. On that basis, during the consultation process try to play smart on the employee categories that might be retrenched.

[Pap_sak]

The first step in the process is to ask for suggestions that might obviate the need for retrenchments. Might be an idea to think about that some.

I stand to be corrected, but the next step is to identify the categories and numbers of employees that need to be retrenched. The last in - first out principle then applies to the employees that fall in these categories. On that basis, during the consultation process try to play smart on the employee categories that might be retrenched.

Do you think would apply for a difference of a week? The person I would like to retrench started 1 week before the other person...

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

Last in first out is not the only criteria, it does however carry considerable weight.
Skills, discipline, new structures, customer skills, literacy all play a role.