When high tech suddenly started shifting and companies went global, IBM faced the changing landscape with a distinction most of its fiercest competitors didn’t have: a large number of aging U.S. employees.
IBM’s reaction? A strategy that, in the words of one confidential planning document, would “correct seniority mix,” according to an investigation by ProPublica and jointly published with MotherJones.
The company slashed its U.S. workforce by as much as three-quarters from its 1980s peak, replacing a substantial share with younger, less-experienced and lower-paid workers while also sending many positions overseas.
ProPublica estimates that in the past five years alone IBM has eliminated more than 20,000 American employees ages 40 and over—about 60% of the total U.S. jobs cut by the company during those years.
In making these cuts, the company has flouted or outflanked U.S. laws and regulations intended to protect later-career workers from age discrimination, according to a review of company documents, legal filings, public records, interviews and employee surveys. Among the investigation’s findings, IBM:
- Denied older workers information the company is legally required to provide to assist those let go whether they’ve been victims of age bias, while also requiring them to sign away the right to go to court or join others to seek redress.
- Converted job cuts into retirements and took steps to boost resignations and firings. The moves reduced the number of employees counted as layoffs.
An IBM spokesman declined requests for the numbers or age breakdown of its job cuts and instead issued the following statement: “We are proud of our company and our employees’ ability to reinvent themselves era after era, while always complying with the law. Our ability to do this is why we are the only tech company that has not only survived but thrived for more than 100 years.”
