IBM has found another way to encourage surplus people to leave the company in the US: over there, the IBM Pension Fund has a surplus of $7,000m over current obligations, so the company is offering employees the right to retire with full pension benefits after 30 years’ service where previously, only people 60 or over qualified for full benefits. A key attraction of the new offer is that the costs will be borne by the pension fund and will not be a charge on the company. The new offer, and other early retirement incentives, are expected to lead to another 10,000 people leaving the company by mid-year, out of a US workforce of 205,500.
