In the past, workers had strong incentives to access their accounts because the amounts involved were considerable and returns to the fund tended to be below market rates and have even been negative. While the presence of a firing penalty should, in principle, have reduced worker turnover, the fact that until 2001 the entire firing penalty was to be paid directly to the worker, left considerable scope for collusive behavior between workers and their firms. However, reforms in the labour code that increased the firing penalty from 10 to 40% in 1998 and the introduction of an explicit layoff tax of 10% payable directly to the government in 2001 are likely to have reduced the scope for workers and firms to collude over dismissals (Barros and Corseuil, 2004, Gonzago, 2003).