Abstract:
Social security and social justice in relation to labour relations require payment of
severance compensation when employments are terminated for non-disciplinary reasons
such as retrenchment and closure. The Industrial Disputes Act15 has provisions relating to
retrenchment,16 and termination of services.17 However, as the provisions in the Industrial
Disputes Act were inadequate to protect the interests of the workmen from the wave of
retrenchment in 1971, the government made an emergency regulation under the Public
Security Ordinance in May 197118 as a temporary measure to control retrenchment. It has
been followed by the enactment of the Termination of Employment of Workmen (Special
Provisions) Act in 1971
