Been with company near between 25-30 years. In a couple of months I will hit the 53 1/2 age mark. At some point in the past I heard that used to mean something. Was told that if a RIF came and you were over that age(with no other cause) that the company could/would Bridge you to retirement rather than lay you off. Now I am not even certain what "Bridge" means. Could someone in the know explain this? Also is this thinking or policy even still applicable in 2016 with our current environment?
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BRIDGE refers to retirement vesting, not severence pay.
Old Allied plan pension was crap until you got to age 55. At 55 you get 80% of full retirement. Before that maybe ?40%? In any case much lower than 80%.
Old HR policy was to be
friendlier to employees and felt that if you got laid off at 53.5 years of age you don't have time to get another pension so they BRIDGE you to age 55 so your pension can be at the much higher 80%.
Like I said, back when HR cared about the employee the set up that bridge policy but set 53.5 as the age.
Hope that helps what BRIDGE means.
If you are on the Allied Signal Pension Plan, and you get RIF'ed on policy dated 1-1-2010, HW will Bridge you. It is stated that if you get Severance, and at the end of the Severance end date, you are within 24 months of early retirement( 55 years of age), you will be bridged without pay to reach full benefit.
The Bendix pension plan specified that if you were within three years of reaching 80 points (age plus years of service) and you were let go, you would be bridged to 80 points by adding years of service to your record. Thus, you could start pulling your pension at what would have been 80 points if you had not been riffed. That was then...
By the way, I was the First replier of this discussion. I want to add that people need to start saving for retirement as early as you can. It takes times to save and grow. In my case, I started saving when I was 30+. It would be even better if I started saving at 20+. So, in my case, I am OK. I am living off my savings and will collect my SSN benefit at 66 (full retirement age). If you have not started saving for your retirement, DO IT NOW.
The term "bridge" can refer to a defined retirement. For instance if you are on a plan that has an 80 or 85 point mark for you to start drawing your pension, if you are within 3 or 5 years of that point, and get RIFed, some of the pension plans automatically bridge you to the 80 or 85 point status so you can draw your benefit. It is in the language of the specific plan if that bridge exists or not.
In the current Honeywell culture, it means that someone drives you to the center of the Golden Gate Bridge and pushes you off the side.
"Just bridged another one".
OP@K6qmNhd-wnd... If you weren't ready to go @ 64 - 64 1/2 years of age, you really squandered some years to save and prepare for retirement.
A bridge salary means a salary, usually just enough for you to survive when you are RIF'ed and you are very close to retirement and not likely to be employed by companies. You get paid the bridge salary from the company that RIF's you, up to your retirement age. I was RIF'ed in Jan 2016. I turned 64 at time. I asked HON HR if bridge salaries were given to any RIF'ed persons. The answer was NO. BTW, there is no law that forces a company to give you a bridge salary nor severance package. These come from a good will or just to have a good public image of the company.