Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

were not the main decision-makers on early exit were reducing personnel at the time of the
first or second interview. Another feature of externalisation policy was the use of early
retirement as main instrument of personnel adjustments before other measures have been
exhausted (like natural turnover, non-filling of vacancies, hiring freeze, short work, parttime
work, transfer to other locations, wage cuts, re-deployment). Those findings support
hypothesis 3 with regard to the termination of work life as the outcome and the economic
position of the firm as independent variable.
Table 18: Testing of hypothesis 3
Firm economic situation branch development ´old´ or ´young´ EE as decision of the worker***
firm**
DE-1 deficit; staff cut 2004
2004: negative old yes, mostly
2006: profit
DE-2 profit; staff cut 2004 ´04: slightly negative* average yes, mostly
DE-3 profit; staff cut 2004 negative average no
DE-4 deficit; 2006: profit 2004: negative young yes
DE-5 2004: profit 2004: negative average probably yes (but only 1
interview with 1 party)
DE-6 deficit; staff cut 2004;
slightly negative* average yes
2006: profit
DE-7 confidential; world-wide: positive; ´04: slightly negative* average
no
staff cut 2006
´06: slightly positive*
DE-8 a.a. ´04: slightly negative* average
no, but free choice
´06: slightly positive*
DE-9 n.s. world-wide: profit; staff cut
2006
´04: slightly negative*
2006: negative
young
2004: yes
2006: no
DE-10 2004: profit; 2006: deficit; staff cut negative young no, but free choice
DE-11 confidential; staff cut 2004 a. 2006 ´04: slightly negative* ´06: old
no, but free choice
slightly positive*
DE-12 2004: deficit ´04: slightly positive* old probably yes (but only 1
interview with 1 party)
DE-13 profit; staff cut 2004 negative young 2004: no, but free choice
2006: yes
DE-14 deficit; staff cut 2004
2004: negative
old
no
2006: profit
2006: positive
Source: corporate data; Statistisches Bundesamt 2005, 2006 (courtesy of Karl-Dietrich Fischer).
* = less than -1% employment decline 2003-2004, resp. below +1% employment growth 2005-2006
** = share of ´50pluses´ among the workforce in 2003/2004 was more than 125% higher/lower as Germanywide
data for enterprises of the same size in Western Germany (Bellmann 2006), or (if share of older workers
not specified) the average age of the workforce was more than 105% higher/lower.
*** = older workers are not pushed out and take the initiative to apply for ATZ, 59 rule or pre-retirement on
their own.
Staff cuts = large-scale personnel reductions of at least 30 workers.
An age-friendly employee exit policy despite of personnel reductions was pursued by
Firm DE-1 (Box 4). Another ´good practice´ example is Firm DE-12.
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