What is the role of reskilling and redeployment when AI impacts jobs?

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Reskilling and Redeployment as Crucial Steps Before Retrenchment Due to AI

When artificial intelligence adoption leads to potential job redundancies, employers are legally and ethically obligated to explore reskilling and redeployment opportunities for affected employees before considering retrenchment. This principle underscores the need to balance technological advancement with job security, ensuring that human capital is re-evaluated and repurposed rather than immediately discarded. The emphasis is on demonstrating genuine redundancy only after all reasonable avenues for retaining employees within the organisation have been exhausted.
Exploring Internal Mobility and Skill Development

Before initiating retrenchment processes, employers should actively assess whether employees whose roles are impacted by AI can be successfully reskilled or upskilled for new positions within the company. This proactive approach involves identifying transferable skills and providing targeted training to equip staff for evolving job requirements. The goal is to retain valuable institutional knowledge and employee experience by adapting them to new functions rather than terminating their employment.
Retrenchment as a Last Resort After Exhausting Alternatives

Retrenchment should be considered only when roles have become genuinely redundant, and all reasonable efforts to reskill, upskill, or redeploy the affected employees have been thoroughly undertaken and proven insufficient. This means that before a dismissal is deemed lawful, an employer must be able to demonstrate that no suitable alternative roles existed or could be created for the employee within the organisation, even after considering various internal mobility options.
International Legal Precedents Reinforce Employee Protection

Foreign court decisions highlight the importance of exploring redeployment before termination. For instance, the Genoa Labour Court in Italy found an employee's dismissal unlawful because the employer failed to consider whether the individual could be redeployed to another suitable role following AI implementation. Similarly, a Chinese court awarded compensation to an employee dismissed after AI introduction, ruling that AI replacement cannot be used to bypass labour protections. While these are not binding in Malaysia, they illustrate a global trend towards requiring employers to make substantial efforts to retain staff before resorting to dismissals driven by technological changes.

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What is the role of reskilling and redeployment when AI impacts jobs?

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