KUALA LUMPUR: DRB-HICOM Bhd has completed a voluntary separation scheme (VSS) to all staff at the headquarters in July 2018.
The scheme is part of an on-going reorganisation of the Group that began in 2016, designed to prepare the Group to meet current and future challenges that are present and will appear in the sectors that it are involved in.
DRB-HICOM in a statement yesterday said the reorganisation was followed by structural changes, shifts in business direction and also the creation of new pursuits across the Group.
41 employees were given their VSS letters effective 31 August 2018, and were all from the headquarters in Shah Alam.
The scheme was not extended to operating companies such as Proton Holdings Bhd.
DRB-Hicom said the organisation of a separation scheme does not necessarily mean that a company is in troubled waters.
This was in response to a story that appeared on an online automotive portal stated that 20 'very senior and prominent executives' were leaving the company, seemed to suggest that this was an extraordinary 'mass departure'.
"A separation scheme enables employees to receive a financial package to tide them over for a period, or to retire on, depending on the circumstances. The VSS scheme enables both parties to cease a professional relationship on positive and mutually rewarding terms," it said.
DRB-Hicom said employees that opt for a separation scheme have an opportunity to embrace new challenges elsewhere within the industry or in a new industry.
Similarly, employees that remain may take up new challenges in the company, wherever the departures leave a vacant position to be filled.
DRB Hicom while more known for its automotive business arm of Proton, it is also involved in waste management (Alam Flora Sdn Bhd), vehicle inspection (PUSPAKOM), defence eqipment DRB-HICOM Defence Technologies Sdn Bhd (DEFTECH), banking (Bank Muamalat), and logistics services (Pos Malaysia).
DRB Hicom is also in property development, asset management and the construction industry.