JUDGMENT

Lee Swee Seng JCA:

[1] The Respondent here, Ooi Mei Chein ("Mei Chein"), holding a senior position as the Head of Treasury and Commercial Administration Services in a company, found herself retrenched, after 24 years of service. It was traumatic for her and more so when at the domestic front, she was going through the throes of a divorce and navigating the issues of custody and maintenance of children.

[2] The Appellant Company, called "OSRAM" in brief, is based in Penang. It is a premium supplier of semiconductor-based lighting products more familiarly known as LEDs. The Appellant OSRAM was one of 4 business units in the OSRAM Group of Companies under its Parent Company OSRAM Gmbh in Munich, Germany ("the Parent Company").

[3] The Appellant Company said it had outsourced its accounting and treasury function to a Global Shared Services Organisation ("GSS") such that the Respondent's role has become redundant. There was no oblique or collateral purpose from the outsourcing or right sizing exercise. It is a managerial prerogative after all for a company to determine the size of its workforce so long as the exercise is not done mala fide with the motive of removing anyone that ha