I wasn't aware that US companies ranked employees and used rankings when purging the workforce (when I think about it it's a pretty obvious idea). In countries with stronger labour laws "underperformance" basically isn't a reason to fire someone. The employer is responsible for the employees performance (training etc.). This can be frustrating in the software business when just a few really poor performers can really sink a team. Obviously forming a really elite team in the US is easy, since you can purge from the bottom, provided you don't affect morale too negatively. But how do you do it in countries where firing for underperformance isn't an option? It's really hard to get away from a bell-curve team.
I think that's really subjective. There are always ways to abuse any kind of system.
Take for example working hours. A country with strong labor laws will usually prohibit employers from making employees work more than x hours a week, and if they do that they have to pay for overtime. That will make some people happy and productive because they will feel safe having protection from the system. But some people will abuse it and slack off.
On the other hand, if you don't have control over that you might end up in a situation where people are only considered good employees and productive if they work crazy hours all the time. Instead of being abused by employees, the system will be abused by the people at the top.
And I guess that covers underperformance. Who defines what bad/average/good performance is? Is the guy who does really good work considered to be underperforming just because he works 9-5 and wants to spend quality time with his family instead of making the office his second home? That kind of thing has to be prevented by law.
Can we drop the manipulation of language? Strong is obviously equivalent to strict, the meaning is clear-cut. It's not difficult to use these words and disagree with the principle they describe.
I can't really comment on other countries, but at least in Germany you have a (pretty) difficult time trying to fire somebody for 'under-performing' as long as the person doesn't mess up unrelated things (like repeated misbehavior, e.g. feigning illness, theft, sexual harassment, ..) or your company isn't doing all that well from an economic point of view.
