Nokia asks employees to lay themselves off

Nokia today announced a series of voluntary measures for "reducing personnel-related costs" during the global economic crisis, starting with an unusual deal called the Voluntary Resignation Package.

The new package is available for Nokia employees worldwide, except for direct labor and senior executives.

Nokia isn't publicly specifying terms of the voluntary layoff program, except to say that these will vary according to local practices and legislation. The package might be viewed as sort of a "golden parachute," though, in the sense that it will undoubtedly provide some sort of financial compensation and/or benefits when an employee exits the company.

However, unlike Nokia's new Voluntary Resignation Package, traditional golden parachutes are offered only to a company's executives, and typically only in the event that the company is acquired and the executive's employment is involuntarily terminated.

Interested Nokia employees will need to hurry to sign up. After Nokia starts taking applications on March 1, the Voluntary Resignation Package will remain open only until 1,000 workers have applied, closing at the latest on May 31, 2009.

The Finnish phone maker is also now urging its workers to make wider use of short-term unpaid leaves and sabbaticals.

Also during 2009, the company will encourage employees not to "cash in" their holiday time off for cash compensation, "but to take their holiday as time off, as it is intended," Nokia said in a statement.