JAL extends early retirement scheme to other employees

A week ago Japan Airlines approached 400 senior managers for possible early retirement. Now JAL has extended this to other employees including maintenance, cabin attendants and ground staff.

The target employees are maintenance workers who are 50 years or older, and cabin attendants and ground staff who are 35 years or older. There are a total of 8,600 additional employees now qualify for the early retirement program. The program will run from March 11 through April 9 2010. Participants will retire by the end of May.

JAL is hoping to attract 2,700 employees to participate in the program. JAL can save 18 billion yen in labor cost if they can achieve this goal. So do you think 30% of eligible staff will retire early? That's a bit ambitious if you ask me...but you never know because it is Japan we are talking about. I am sure there are honorable employees who will put the company first and retire for good.

But isn't this a bit unfair? 35 for cabin attendants and ground staff but 50 for maintenance staff!? Probably because it took longer to train maintenance staff and if too many senior maintenance staff retire, safety might become a concern...maybe that's why JAL set the age higher for them. No matter what they do, SAFETY should remain the top priority!

Source: Nikkei.com

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