not sure about the 30% number, but the reason the car companies are still paying for retirement benefits of ex-employees is because they did not put enough money in the defined benefit funds when the employees were working there.
Was an interesting article in SMH recently (today/yesterday I think) about the huge deficits in many Australian corporate super funds. Frankly obscene and the companies should be putting funds in now to cover these deficits to avoid future problems for employees missing out on their rightful benefits. We saw this with NAB a few years ago where the UK workers were forced into accepting lower benefits after NAB refused to fill the shortfall in the company pension scheme.
Remember when you join these companies, they will say 0.2 years salary for each year of service or whatever and talk up the pension benefits. Then they turn round later and refuse to cover the shortfall in their contribution.
Remember, these shortfalls often arise from company's taking contribution shortfalls when the market is booming
