Optional early retirement schemes: Golden handshake or a nudge out the door?

RETRENCHMENT, outplacement or golden handshakes are not unfamiliar to the corporate world, but increasingly, early retirement is also being offered to employees who want to take an earlier break from their career.

In the pandemic years, there were companies, especially those in the aviation industry, offering ad-hoc early retirement to cut labour costs.

Some companies, however, are now offering it to staff who are above a certain age but below the statutory retirement age of 63, regardless of the state of the economy.