A television campaign is also on the menuMichel Camdessus told a conversation with MrsThe future of Christian Streiff is in any case issueOur customers don't pay not only for a vehicleIt has also unscrewed against the yen losing 1It's the least of things judge Bernard Devy FOIt is for example whole challenge of post 2For the public group the challenge is hugeThe economic crisis but opens the door to new opportunitiesOn the contrary he did became only more humanThe year should have otherwise start at Commerzbank. The fourth German Bank had removed 7,500 posts in 2003 and was on the social peace in 2004. But the announcement by management, end of December 2003, of the removal of its "House" of enterprise pension system had thrown the workers on the street and caused a considerable stir in Germany, requiring the Commerzbank to go back six weeks later. Announced reform would have indeed resulted in losses of hundreds of euros per month income, upon retirement, for some 20,000 of the 25,000 employees of Commerzbank. Delegates of personnel and management began finally agree at the end of marathon negotiations on the principle of a consolidation of the system, the détailss must be negotiated before the end of June. "Commerzbank, it was urgent to put an end to the negative headlines in the press, stresses Uwe Tschäge, the President of the equivalent of the Enterprise Committee." Today, the principle of company pensions is maintained. Commerzbank on its side could eliminate the financial risk linked to the model in force. "Rather than ensure a standard of living equivalent on average to 90 of the last salary as at present staff (even if it decreased the general regime), from 2005, Commerzbank will pay its employees a complement of retirement lives solely on the basis of the contributions made by the company in a pension fund.
Instrument of motivation
"The pensions of company, as a pension for life guaranteeing a percentage of the last salary, are more fundable." Inherited from the 1950s and the economic miracle, the system allowed companies to constitute reserves and bind the employees in their business because that which was in General lost all acquired rights. Today, it is different. "Rating agencies consider the presence of such reserves on the balance sheet as debt, which has earned for example Thyssen-Krupp to be downgraded by Standard & Poor's", said Dieter Bräuninger, specialist pensions at Deutsche Bank Research. The pensions of former employees weigh 6.6 billion euros on the balance sheet of Thyssen-Krupp (190,000 employees end of 2002). Currently, 444 million euros are paid each year to former employees of the group.
Yet, "the pensions of company are an important instrument of human resources management," says Volker Meinhardt, researcher at the Economic Institute DIW." "It is more interesting to focus an employee through the pensions of company by wage increases." Some 16 million people (or 43 of employees) benefit in Germany. This advantage, regarded as an integral part of the salary, has become the "third pillar" pension German, without be anchored within the rigid framework of collective agreements. As such, it is therefore reviewable at any time. Today, the DAX 30 companies spend an average 7.6 of the payroll for their company pensions. But the General movement is to redesign the systems. It seems inexorable: "HypoVereinsbank, Daimler Chrysler, Siemens, Deutsche Bank, Volkswagen...". "All these companies have already proceeded with"modernization"of their company pension system," said Dieter Bräuninger.
Overall, these reforms will in three directions: the replacement of business to life pensions financed by the only employer by pension funds co-financed by employees on the one hand. This formula is possible in Germany since 2002. The creation of ad hoc on the other hand, companies responsible for manage the pensions of companies, to remove the balance a position rebuterait of potential foreign investors. Or finally learned dosage of these two components.
The State of the labour market
A countercurrent however, Opel does not hesitate to work in consultation with the staff delegates to... the reintroduction of a company retreat, removed in 1997 because difficulties of the group. Currently, the 32,000 employees the automaker 25.000 benefit of such a benefit (on average 450 euros of pension per month after twenty to twenty-five years in the business). 7,000 people hired after 1997 are, excluded from the system. Official explanation of the transfer of cap: "Opel wants to remain an employer attractive on the market of work with young engineers and skilled workers as the automobile industry again," said spokesman Ulrich Weber. Clearly, Opel expects to recruit in a few years. But the pensions of company are one of the arguments to pull the best candidates.
"As a company, it is in the awkward position of duty savings without be eliminated through competition", says Norbert Heinen, responsible of the Gerling life insurance Department. In the wake of the Commerzbank, the insurer had therefore reviewed "downward" its corporate pension system, with resulting in a reduction of 30 to 50 of the amount of the pensions to 5,000 of the 7,500 employees of the company. But, with focus on sales, profit and competitiveness, train station to the human factor! "Our employees are a crucial element for the success of the company," argued his side Hans - Georg Cmiel, head of the Law Department of labour and social law of BMW, 104.500 employees. The manufacturer says consider no lifetime pension system reform. "Our responsibility with them goes beyond the years in the business." "This is why we pay them a pension company", in addition to the various products, type pension or life insurance fund proposed by the group.
"Overall, you could say that the type of company pension granted reflects the State of the market to work for a given branch", said Klaus Stiefermann, AbA President, Union of retired business professionals. Thus, the Bank and the insurance sector is, in Germany, in a phase of deep restructuring, with 43,000 deletions of employment in two years for four more large banks in the country. "A sector in difficulty or in surplus of staff has not really need this instrument", says Klaus Stiefermann. But, when fat cows return, nothing prevents to reconnect with the old system. The retirement home, an economic barometer
