No, this is no random poll for some scientific research....rather, a social compensation plan stipulated:

"Employees aged up to 59 are eligible for compensation according to the following formula..."

In original German it read:

"Bis zu 59-jährige Mitarbeiter erhalten eine Abfindung nach folgender Berechnungsformel: ...”.

Now, the question arose whether an employee living in his 60 th year was "59-jährig oder 60-jährig"...

The Federal Employment Court said "Yes", he his "59 jährig" and qualifies for the compensation package. The court dismissed the contrary decision of the lower courts:

"According to general parlance a person is one year '59-jährig' starting from the completion of 59 years until the completion of 60 years. Otherwise, if a person would be immediately 60 years old on turning 59 years, he would never really be 59 years or at best for a logical second."

The decision had a more serious import to it, especially, did it clarify that such a compensation clause in form of an age classification did not infringe Discrimination Laws that also prohibit unjust discrimination on the basis of age.

Rechtsanwalt_Jain(at)yahoo.de

For more:
http://juris.bundesarbeitsgericht.de/cgi-bin/rechtsprechung/document.py?Gericht=bag&Art=en&sid=5ac23421aabf5a01feaa237d03a9c4c6&nr=13642&linked=urt