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When Ford and General Motors offered buyouts to their employees over the last two years, they each got more takers than they were looking for. Those companies chose to let most of the applicants have the buyouts and then hired temporary workers to fill the gap. This year, it was Chrysler's turn to shed another 13,000 employees and they're taking a different tack.

They offered two different deals based on the employees' age. Older employees near retirement age could get a $70,000 lump sum payment with lifetime health insurance. The second package is for younger employees, who can take a $100,000 lump sum with no health insurance. About 4,560 employees have been approved so far, mostly for the $70,000 package. The problem is the lower-seniority workers. Chrysler doesn't want to be in the position of hiring temporary workers and is taking the applicants on a case by case basis so they don't eliminate too many jobs.

Many of the younger workers who want to leave have already found new jobs elsewhere and are now stuck while they wait for Chrysler to decide if they can get their money. So far, Chrysler isn't giving a target date for when decisions will be made and that's leading to a lot of frustration. Chrysler may want to get this situation sorted quickly before it backfires on them.

[Source: Detroit News]