British Airways last month asked thousands of its staff to work for free during the summer, and to switch to part time hours. Many car manufacturers have sent workers home on half pay for months at a time.
BT has proposed that employees take up to a year off, in return for taking a 75 per cent pay cut. To encourage as many workers to take up of the offer, the company will pay their reduced salary as an upfront cash payment.
It is also offering staff a one-off payment of £1,000 if they switch from full-time to part-time work
These radical proposals are the latest example of the private sector having to adopt increasingly desperate and inventive measures to tackle the recession by cutting costs without sacking staff.
Charles Davis, economist at the forecasting house Centre for Economics and Business Research, said: “There has been a lot of talk about green shoots, but we feel employment has much further to fall, considering we have had the steepest economic contraction since the Second World War.”
Yet The Taxi Industry is Ignored when it protests at the amount of Taxis on our streets and the lack of work available. Are we immune to the Credit Crunch? Local Authorities seem to think so!
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