Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

Box 4: Good practice in employee exit policy in Firm DE-1
The local administration unit offers ATZ on basis of the collective agreement for the civil service (valid 1998-
2008). The staff number has decreased by 200 persons since 2002 with the help of the early retirement scheme
and natural turnover. Early retirement was however not the only means of personnal adjustments. Personnel
demand was met with the help of temp workers and marginal employment. Excess employment was solved with
the help of re-deployment, part-time work, non-filling of vacancies, a freeze on hiring and extra holidays instead
of wage supplements (information from additional material provided by Firm DE-1).
The personnel manager regards ATZ as “an early exit based on a severance payment.” Workers are given leeway
in choosing ATZ and defining its duration. Most workers decide for the 8-10-year option which means that they
are not affected by pension deductions. Due to the completed personnel reductions by the time of the second
interview, the civil service establishment does not permit ATZ any more, as hiring successors is too costly. The
interviewed personnel managers hoped that ATZ would not be prolonged by the legislator.
Also the WCM observed that the workers decide themselves whether to choose ATZ or not. The chairman has
however also noticed a few cases when older workers where manoevred into that model: „Well, in some cases
we have learnt that ... well, pressure was put on older workers, ´Go on applying for ATZ´, or ´Go retire early at
last´.“ The chairman supposes that the continued employment was too expensive, or that the worker concerned
was troublesome and did not consent to everything.
The findings presented here lead to the conclusion that in eight firms, externalisation
strategies were prevalent, which took the form of actively pushing out of older workers in
four firms while in the four others, there was a collusion of interests of the employee
representatives, the management and the workers. However, this policy is not influenced by
or correlated with the average age of the workforce. Another conclusion is that the
externalisation strategies have existed already during stable economic conditions, but
became intensified once the firms encountered the need to reduce personnel. Thus, my firm
case studies provide evidence for the continuation of the externalisation strategy via early
retirement with regard to older workers from the 1980s, which was also at that time
homogeneous with regard to firms of various production sectors, proving the hegemony of
national regimes (Rosenow/Naschold 1994: 249-250).
All firms in my sample provided some form of early exit schemes, above all the early
retirement scheme based on a branch-wide or firm-level agreement. In choosing a specific
scheme or the preferred mode of exit offered to older workers, firms strive to preserve the
locus of control in the transition to retirement (Mares 2001).
Most of the firms in my sample were downsizing during the first or second interview
period. In the majority of cases, that was correlated with the economic development of the
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