Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

The qualitative support for the hypothesis can be presented in the form of national
patterns (Table 24).
Table 24: National patterns of internalisation and externalisation of older workers
Variable Germany Poland
Inclusion in recruitment Rather not Rather not
Preventive health management
Further training addressing the age of
workers
Older workers as flexibility resource in
large staff cuts
Opportunity to work past standard
retirement age
Cooperation between employee
representatives and management on ageing
issues
Yes, increasingly (but not necessarily with
an ageing focus)
No, but equal access to training
Yes, with high financial input of the firm
No, ruled out by collective agreements
Yes
Rather not, with the exception of health
checks
No, often non-inclusion or o training at all
Yes, usually with low financial input of the
firm; large differences by gender
In singular firms, if the economic situation
is favourable
In some firms, on early exit only
That evidence confirms the power of the institutional theory and shows that the national
´home environment´ matters (Porter 1985, quoted after Naschold et al. 1994a: 481, 472).
National and sectoral institutions are the context within which early exit patterns in firms
evolve. Institutional variables form a specific national framework together with structural,
socio-economic factors. Already the different development of the labour market creates a
different home environment (Hall/Soskice 2001). Statutory pathways of early exit in
Germany require the co-operation of firms, either as financial input or the willingness to
hire new staff (which is a pre-condition for re-imbursement), while pre-retirement benefits
or the early old-age pension in Poland require only the cancellation of the employment
contract (Aleksandrowicz 2006: 28-9). That invites the rejection of responsibility for the
integration of older workers by Polish firms, and the externalisation of costs onto the public.
Another aspect connected to employee exit policy is that pre-retirement benefits utilised
by Polish firms as a vehicle for early exit are granted only to employees from companies
threatened by insolvency, in cases of liquidation of the shop or of the workplace at which
the employee has hitherto worked, while no such conditions have to be fulfilled in case of
the German ATZ. Therefore, early exit is a much more conflictual issue in Poland, and
borders on matters of individual subsistence and firm survival. That leaves little scope for
the evolution of age management practices in Polish firms.
There were some marked differences in the agency of firms in those two branches with
regard to older workers.
216