'Goldman Sachs to give incentives for early retirement'

LONDON: Troubled financial services major Goldman Sachs is set to change its retirement rules, providing incentives to its long-serving employees to leave before the end of the year taking its total layoff toll to over 3,000, a media report says.

The change in retirement rules would lead Goldman Sachs to further add to the over 3,000 redundancies already announced by the Wall Street bank, according to the Financial Times.

The winnowing at Goldman, which employs about 32,500 people globally, comes a month after the financial major said it would slash about 10 per cent of its total workforce.

"As of 2009, it will take long for Goldman's employees to qualify for the firm's full retirement package," the report said. The report quoted the bank as saying that the measure taken was in line with the rules followed by its competitors, even though they generally make the employees work longer before qualifying for similar treatment.

It's also a way of encouraging employees to stay longer," the report added. Last month, the Group 's top executives had decided to forego their 2008 bonus, giving up nearly tens of millions of dollars in payouts in a year that saw market meltdown and economic downturn.