Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

Managers had also more information on white-collar workplaces, whereas employee
representatives argued from the stance of blue-collar workers. Employee representatives
also remarked on the risen work intensity and higher performance demands as consequences
of automatisation and staff cuts. The director in one firm critically remarked on the position
of works councils in that debate: “The works council should not only represent those who
suffer from hardships and burdens but also those who enjoy working” (Firm DE-3, short
introduction by industrial relations director during company a tour in 2006).
Confronted with impaired workers, about as many firms apply either the externalisation
and the internalisation strategy. Structural factors (economic situation of the branch,
personnel cuts) have an impact on which strategy is chosen. The firms do not discriminate
against older workers in health and integration management as the externalisation, resp.
internalisation policy is applied to all impaired workers. However, in the case of older
workers, there is a wider choice among pathways of early exit.
The qualitative panel proved valuable as it allowed to track the progress, resp.
stagnation in health management measures announced at the time of the first interview.
4.2.6. Termination of the Employment Contract
Good practice in shaping the end of workers´ careers entails gradual retirement options,
giving workers the choice whether to work past retirement age, basing social selection in
personnel reductions on objective criteria other than age, projecting beforehand the possible
effects of early retirement upon the firm, and exhausting all other options of lowering
personnel costs (e.g. short-time work, part-time work, sabbaticals, job sharing, time-limited
employment) before resorting to personnel reductions (Naegele/Walker 2002: 232-3). I
would add another criterion of good practice – to allow to use ATZ in the part-time model.
In this chapter, I will depict the general regulatory framework at the end of working life,
like the protection against dismissals or works council agreements on early exit pathways,
and show how personnel reductions in many of the studied German firms have influenced
the employment chances of incumbent older workers. Finally, I will present a ´good
practice´ example on the basis of the previous findings. I will also test hypothesis 2 and
hypothesis 3 (see section 2.2.).
Almost all firms have codified a special protection against dismissals bound to age and
tenure. It starts as early as at the age of 40 and a 15-year-tenure in the public sector or in
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