00:00The Industrial Court has upheld AirAsia's retrenchment of an employee who has been working
00:08for the company for 17 years.
00:10It held that the low-cost carrier was entitled to use its best-fit selection criteria to
00:16trim down the number of pilots at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
00:21Court Chairman Anderson Ong ruled that the airline was justified in deviating from the
00:26last-in-first-out principle when terminating the claimant's employment in a retrenchment
00:31exercise.
00:33In his award, Ong said the selection of employees to be retained or retrenched based on work
00:38locations and qualifications was a valid reason to depart from the LIFO principle.
00:44The airline's best-fit selection criteria involved the selection of pilots for retrenchment
00:50premised on their performance ratings and disciplinary record since 2016.
00:55It was reported that the claimant was selected as yet received a must-improve rating in
01:002016 and a needs-improvement rating in 2019.
01:05Ong said one of the reasons for the claimant's 2019 rating was that he received four demerit
01:10points for having taken 16 days of medical leave.
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