When General Motors last month offered buyouts and early retirement packages to 113,000 hourly workers, the move focused new attention on a key aspect of the continually evolving relationship between employers and employees. Buyouts are essentially management’s attempts to trim costs and make their operations more efficient — usually when the company is in a slump or under attack — by offering workers incentives to voluntarily leave their jobs. Buyouts are a clear alternative to layoffs, in which management gets to choose who heads for the door rather than give employees the opportunity to make that decision for themselves. But layoffs leave managers facing sticky legal issues, especially with regards to union contracts, and also require the companies to pay unemployment compensation. In addition, layoffs can create bad will among the remaining employees. Buyouts, frequently described as a “humane” way to handle employment reduction, show up in a variety of industries.…