Employers are however subject to the same legal obligations and are required to follow the same retrenchment process as they ordinarily would before the COVID-19 pandemic. This situation has presented various challenges for employers.
To assist you in navigating the retrenchment process during these difficult times, CDH has updated our retrenchment guideline to answer all questions related to retrenchments more generally as well as other considerations applicable during this time. The retrenchment guideline seeks to answer questions related to, amongst other things, short time, temporary layoffs, whether an employer may be exempt from the payment of severance pay where it cannot afford to pay employees, as well as permissible selection criteria.
