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Here's what we know.
下面是我们了解到的情况。
In making staff cuts, IBM has side-stepped US laws and regulations intended to protect workers from age discrimination.
裁员时，IBM成功规避了美国保护员工不受年龄歧视方面的法律和法规。
In the past, they would get two lists from IBM.
过去，执法部门会从IBM手里收取两份清单。
One that had ages of people staying and another with ages of those being let go.
一份是留用员工的年龄清单，另一份是被裁员工的年龄清单。
In 2014 IBM stopped giving that information.
2014年，IBM不再提供这些信息。
On top of that, the company required people to sign away their rights to sue for age discrimination in court, in exchange for their severance packages.
最重要的是，该公司要求人们放弃在法庭上控诉自己受到年龄歧视的权利，才能拿到遣散费。
By signing the documents, laid-off employees waived the right to go to court.
一旦签署文件，下岗职工就等于放弃了上法庭的权利。
They could only pursue their age cases through confidential arbitration.
他们只能通过保密仲裁继续追查他们的年龄案件。
They also have to do it solo, so they couldn't combine forces with other workers who may be claiming similar age discrimination.
他们还必须单独追查，也就是说，他们不能与其他可能声称受到类似年龄歧视的员工联手追查。
Studies show arbitration overwhelmingly favors employers.
研究表明，仲裁会严重偏向雇主一方。
Workers win only 19% of the time, when their cases are arbitrated versus 36% of the time when they go to federal court and 57% in state courts.
在所有案件中，员工仲裁成功的几率只有19％，而他们去联邦法院上诉成功的几率是36％，去州法院上诉成功的几率则是57％。
IBM has also laid off and fired some older workers with review techniques that effectively made their age a disadvantage.
IBM还会通过对老员工不公的评审制度裁掉一些年龄较大的员工。
Take the case of one business unit that was using a point system to evaluate workers.
就拿某个使用积分系统来评估员工的业务部门来说。
The more points a person got, the more protected they were from negative changes to employment.
一个人获得的积分越多，他们就更不容易受到就业形势变化的影响。
But the system itself appeared biased.
然而，这个制度本身就有失偏颇。
Employees were given points for being relatively new at a job level, so those who worked there fewer years earned more points than long time IBMers.
积分多少是依员工是否是新员工而定，所以新员工就比长期在IBM工作的人拿到的积分更多。
The bias against older workers is evident when you compare the number of points to years of service.
把积分与工作年限一对比，我们明显能看出来这一制度对年长工人的偏见。
Those with no points worked there an average of more than thirty years.
没有拿到积分的基本都是工作了三十多年的老员工。
Those with higher points average fifteen years.
而得分较高的人平均工作年限为十五年。
But the numbers don't reflect worker skills.
然而，这些数字并不能反映员工的能力。
80% of older, more long-term employees, the ones with lower points,
80％的老员工，也就是那些低分员工，
were rated by the company itself as “good enough to stay at current job levels or be promoted”
会被公司评定为“足以胜任当前岗位或者可提拔”员工，
while only a small percentage of younger employees with high numbers had similar ratings.
而只有一小部分得分较高的年轻员工才能拿到这一荣誉。
They've also converted many layoffs into retirements, forcing ex-employees to accept a retirement package or leave with no benefits.
他们还把许多被裁员工登记成退休员工，强迫前员工接受退休计划或净身下岗。
They've told remote workers, including older ones who had worked from home for years,
他们还把远程员工，包括在家工作多年的老员工，
to relocate to offices potentially thousands of miles away from their homes.
调到可能离家数千英里的新岗位。
Their options were relocate or resign.
给他们的选择是要么调动，要么辞职。
In response to all of these findings, IBM has said
针对所有这些调查结果，IBM表示
“we are proud of our company and our employees ability to reinvent themselves era after era while always complying with the law.”
“我们的员工能够在新时代重塑自我并始终遵纪守法，为此公司感到非常自豪。”
The problem is protection for workers under the law is eroding.
问题是，保护员工权益的法律正在受到侵蚀。
In the past few decades, rulings in age discrimination cases have said
在过去几十年中，年龄歧视案例的裁决表明
former employees must prove that there were no factors other than age involved in their job changes,
前雇员必须证明，员工的调动除了年龄没有受到任何其他因素的影响，
but companies like IBM have made it near impossible to prove that.
然而，IBM等公司让相关的取证调查变得无比艰难。
With nearly 400,000 employees worldwide, IBM is still a tech giant.
IBM在全球拥有近40万名员工，所以它如今还算是一名科技巨头。
And how it handles its older workforce could encourage other companies to follow suit,
IBM如何处理公司的老员工，其他公司就可能依法效仿，
even though a lot of these companies have a younger workforce now.
尽管当前，很多这类公司的员工都尚且比较年轻。
Here's the thing about aging: it happens to everyone
关于老化的一个真相就是：每个人迟早都会遇到这个问题。
