GEORGE TOWN (Nov 18, 2008) : AMD Penang has denied email rumours that the company is retrenching 500 of its employees.

"If such news were true, the plant in Penang with about 900 employees would have closed down," its human resource director Jariyah Hashim told reporters at a dialogue between Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and Penang industrial representatives at Komtar today.

She clarified that an announcement was in fact issued by AMD’s international headquarters in the US that a total of 500 employees worldwide were to be released.

"We want to clarify that only 19 of our staff members in Penang have accepted to participate in a voluntary separation scheme (VSS)," she added.