IBM accused of targeting older employees in lay-off strategy

Staff over 40 told they didn't have up-to-date skills

IBM has been accused of targeting older staff during lay-offs, according to a report co-published by Publica and Mother Jones.

IBM is said to have laid-off around 20,000 US employees aged over 40 over the past five years, though the actual number is believed to be "almost certainly higher".

Some of those workers, who had careers with IBM spanning decades, saw their jobs either given to "less-experienced and lower-paid workers" or sent overseas.

The investigative-style report arrives on the back of a questionnaire completed by more than 1,000 ex-IBM staff who shared their experiences, interviews, official company documents, and more.

Some of the information points to the reason for the cuts as IBM's shift from hardware - it no longer makes PCs or low-end servers - towards cloud and data analytics.

The report suggests that it was this shift which made IBM feel compelled to reach a "correct seniority mix" and "shift headcount mix towards a greater percentage of early professional hires", according to presentations shown to senior executives at the company, including the vice president of human resources.

IBM has responded to the report. It said in a statement: "We are proud of our company and our employees' ability to reinvent themselves era after era, while always complying with the law.

"Our ability to do this is why we are the only tech company that has not only survived but thrived for more than 100 years."

Nevertheless, it's safe to say the former workers who were interviewed do not agree.

In the report, they claimed that their performance reviews suddenly became much harder once IBM started focusing on pivoting its business towards the cloud and AI, with some feeling forced to accept an early retirement package when the alternative was being let go.

While IBM encouraged some of those affected to apply for jobs elsewhere in the firm, ProPublica found communications internally between staff actually deterred managers from rehiring them.