I knew about all the FHA stuff. I didn't know 15,000 people were terminated in 2002. I should have known as I had a neighbor who was
affected. And not a surprise that Sam had just taken the helm and started the R/A ball rolling. As far as I know there were no large job actions between January 1995, until the 2002 firings you mentioned. We only saw temp employees lose their jobs. Not that Gerstner wouldn't have fired these people if he hadn't retired (he was 60), but Palmisano was the architect of IBM's second wave of massive US firings. I believe that IBM has fired more people than any other corporation on the face of the earth. And some of the early '90s voluntary transition programs had some strong-arm tactics too.
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--- In ibmpensionissues@..., "Christopher Novak" <cnovak@...> wrote:
I was 39 when they switched plans.. 18yrs of service but only 39 so
I got the new plan. Can't believe this is legal. Wouldn't this be
age discrimination? Met company requirements to retire but they
say not old enough to collect the medical money? Telling me I have
to wait till I'm 55 makes sense but forfeit it all has to be
against the law... Some law.. Anyone know if anyone ever
challenged this in court? I would suspect IBM had it's attorneys
lock this down but curious. I would bet that if this got in front
of a jury they would side with the employee.. But guessing that
will never happen.
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Others have written that IBM's new 401K practice of annual instead of semi-monthly match gives IBM a financial incentive to fire employees with at least part of the employee's severance funded by canceling IBM's accrued liability of the individual's 401K match.
Eligibility for the Future Health Account gives the same incentive. 15,000 IBM'ers were fired in 2002. I was 47, with 24.5 years of service, and even with 5+5 (add 5 years to age, and 5 years to service to get to either 55 or 30), my numbers of 52 & 29.5 meant that I was unable to bridge to retirement. Altho I retained my Pension 1, "poof" went my FHA (2002 value about $25K). I'm sure some personnel accountant figured that erasing that future liability funded other immediate severance costs.
Individual litigation is expensive; short of a class action or Department of Justice/Labor interest in these things, it'll probably never be tested in court.
"At Will" employment is supposed to be equal between employer and employee. I can understand losing a promised benefit had I left voluntarily or been terminated 'for cause' (NOT usually the case in a "resource action". However I think the deck is stacked against the employee when the employer can reduce termination costs by NOT having to pay promised benefits when they fire employees.
