M'SIAN GOVT IDENTIFIES MEASURES TO MITIGATE POSSIBLE RETRENCHMENT

PETALING JAYA (Malaysia), Nov 29 (Bernama) -- The government has put in place several measures to mitigate the effect of possible retrenchment in the electrical and electronic sectors due to the global economic crisis, Human Resources Minister Dr S. Subramaniam said Saturday.

He said of late, the ministry found that factories had been reducing their
output, operation period and number of workers in the assembly line.

"Should there be a retrenchment, the effect would be felt first in Penang
and Johor Baharu, followed by the Klang Valley," he told reporters after
launching a book, titled "Occupational Health For Health Care Professionals"
here.

He said the global economic crisis had yet to affect industries which
relied
on domestic demand.

On suggestion by Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) deputy president Dr
Chua Soi Lek that the government put in place a mechanism to monitor job
retrenchment, Subramaniam said, the government had already done so. MCA is a
political party, which is a member of the Ruling Barisan Nasional
coalition.

"A total of 18,000 people have been retrenched this year but this is not an
alarming rate and is not higher compared to last year's rate," he said.

Meanwhile in northern state of Penang, the ministry's deputy
secretary-general (policy) Mohd Shariff Hussin said the Manpower Department
received reports of factories reducing their number of workers to save
costs.

"We are monitoring the situation but so far it has not reached an alarming
level," he told reporters after opening the Penang Career and Post-Graduate Expo
2008.