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Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

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2) the supply-side orientated internalisation strategy based on the ´work for everybody<br />

principle´, resulting in an integration of older workers. Firms following that strategy<br />

solve personnel adjustment problems on the internal labour market, by adjusting the<br />

qualificatory and health potential of the current workforce and securing workplaces.<br />

According to Naschold et al. (1994a), Germany follows a marked externalisation<br />

strategy where older workers are treated as a flexibilisation resource homogeneously across<br />

industrial sectors and production regimes. Firms respond in their policies to incentives set<br />

by state actors and social partners. Policies differ between small and large companies, the<br />

latter more frequently resorting to regular dismissals and high labour turnover (ibid: 466).<br />

Although this study is ten years old, only little has changed in German companies since then<br />

(comp. Brussig 2005: 14).<br />

The authors propose the following division of personnel policies by their<br />

externalising/internalising character (Table 14):<br />

Table 14: Firms´ basic employment/retirement strategies<br />

internalisation<br />

part-time jobs<br />

occupational pension<br />

partial pension<br />

redeployment within enterprise<br />

reemployment<br />

health and safety measures<br />

sheltered jobs<br />

anti-discrimination legislation<br />

further training/retraining<br />

career development<br />

age-ing friendly workplaces<br />

utilisation of active labour market measures<br />

short-time work as alternative to dismissals<br />

externalisation<br />

age-selective redundancies (possibly accompanied by social plans)<br />

active disincentives to older workers<br />

financial incentive programme<br />

no attempts made to humanise working conditions<br />

early retirement after a given number of insurance years<br />

retirement provisions linked to overall state or demand for labour<br />

retirement linked to health and performance level<br />

not filling vacancies after labour turnover<br />

disability pensions in case of health impairments<br />

Source: Naschold et al. (1994a: 473), Rosenow/Naschold (1994: 48); own modifications and additions.<br />

A sustainable personnel policy requires the inclusion of both alleviating measures for<br />

older workers with already limited work capabilities, and of preventive measures for<br />

workers of all ages (Köchling/Deimel 2006: 115ff), but that prescription is seldom followed<br />

in practice. The German IAB Establishment Panel found out that externalising measures<br />

like the early retirement scheme were offered most often by the surveyed firms (and more<br />

frequently by large firms with 500 and more workers), while internalising measures like<br />

further vocational training and age-mixed teams existed in less than the half of firms, and<br />

measures directed at older workers only (special equipment of workplaces, lower<br />

performance requirements) were offered by a very small faction (Bellmann et al. 2007: 4).<br />

104

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