The V in VSS stands for Voluntary. Therefore a VSS is legally no more than a scheme to motivate employees to volunteer their resignations.

Retrenchments are due to role elimination or redundancy. The employee does not volunteer himself for retrenchments.

If it's a VSS agreement you signed, you have no recourse.

One exception though: a VSS must must be offered to an entire group/class/dept of employees and the target number of acceptances must not be 100%. If the company receives a take up rate of 100% (ie. everybody in the target group takes up the VSS) AND then accepts ALL of them - then the exercise can be deemed to be a retrenchment, as the company has effectively eliminated an entire group/class/dept.

This post has been edited by seantang: Feb 19 2009, 08:02 PM

TS said VSS, not retrenchment due to redundancy. Under VSS, it's perfectly alright to replace the person who took up VSS with a new hire.