What is Digg?Sponsored by Travelzoo
190 Comments
- artwhite, on 06/17/2009, -0/+14540,000 employees ask British Airlines CEO to jump without a parachute
- nova912, on 06/18/2009, -0/+64"play their part" -- I think that's what they got hired and payed to do...
- anthropodeus, on 06/18/2009, -1/+60British Airlines is probably asking people to work for them without pay because British Airlines has no money because it does not exist.
Title should read "British Airways". - splinter09, on 06/17/2009, -2/+54Yeah right while the owners are raving with all their fortunes.
- AaronCo, on 06/18/2009, -1/+53Nobody should expect other people to do professional work for free. Life isn't a charity and people deserve to get paid for their labor.
- benicillin1, on 06/18/2009, -1/+461.2 mil a year. He's working for free in July though.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090609/od_nm/us_briti ...
though businessweek has him closer to 1.1m
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/ ... - pichinde, on 06/18/2009, -2/+43Wouldn't it be interesting to know what the CEO makes.
- maninblack87, on 06/18/2009, -1/+40I think he can live without his $100k a month for more than just July.
- DirtyVicar, on 06/18/2009, -1/+36Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways, will receive an inflation-busting pay rise taking his salary to £743,000 this year and could gain a further £1.1 million in deferred share bonuses. He is giving up his £500,000 bonus and foregoing his pay for July.
http://article.wn.com/view/2009/06/10/BA_chief_Wil ...
I'm not so sure this is an executive leading by example. - DouglasQ, on 06/18/2009, -1/+34"No money left ey? We'll just stop PAYING people!" - Airlines CEO Extrordonaire
- inactive, on 06/18/2009, -3/+31They can ***** off, i don't work for british airways and the hell would i work for free just so the company can save some money, and these staff need to take a stand.
People have costs to pay too, bills, rent, food, kids and how the ***** can you survive working without pay for four weeks, if you earn an average wage you will lose at least £250 from one week alone.
If they threaten you with the loss of your job your probably better off going on benefits, if you have to rent, the government pay for unemployed people's rent, if you have kids you will get tax credits, council tax help and other stuff.
***** british airways, if they want to reduce costs they can start by putting down the pay of more senior staff, make sweeping cuts across the board, if simple people like air hostesses, catering assistants and cashiers can live off minimum wage everyone else can until the recession is over, but don't ask the staff to work for nothing, thats one step up from slavery. - Lochie, on 06/18/2009, -1/+26You are technically correct. The best kind of correct.
- sirbeta, on 06/18/2009, -0/+25Wouldn't mind the unpaid leave unless I was really hurting for money, but there isn't a chance in hell I'd work for free while the brass are still making money off my charity.
- cleveruser, on 06/17/2009, -1/+25Even if 90% of these employees decide to work for no paycheck (which is unrealistic in itself)... then that still leads to around 5000 layoffs!
- superlolz, on 06/18/2009, -0/+24Volunteers.
- Beylan, on 06/18/2009, -1/+24The writing is on the wall. They convince their employees to work without pay, then sell the company when the balance sheet looks a bit better for more money than they would have gotten otherwise. Everyone at BA still gets laid off when the new company considers them redundant. The executives give themselves huge bonuses for their genius and retire to Brazil.
- inactive, on 06/17/2009, -2/+24Uh, I'm no economist but wouldn't the sensible thing to do be laying off unnecessary workers, or if they're all necessary, increase prices?
- WordsnCollision, on 06/17/2009, -1/+18Perhaps if BA used less fuel per flight, they wouldn't have to fight to stay afloat. Oh, wait...
- dvsbastard, on 06/18/2009, -1/+18Great move... Because asking employees to work unpaid will certainly solve all their cash balancing problems... rather than just further delaying inevitable layoffs...
- DaviDTC, on 06/18/2009, -2/+18The month of no pay the CEO is taking will be repaid as a bonus when the company fails.
- ZeroCubed, on 06/18/2009, -1/+16Yes, that is the sensible thing to do. Except then customers and employees get angry. Angry like the crocodiles that were wrestled by Steve Erwin. They all wanted a bite out of him, but couldn't reach him. So they hired the stingray to kill him in a way that's never happened before.
It'll be like that with the airlines soon enough. All we need is the car route they take from home to work, and a well paid (by everyone else) gutsy employee. - TheHerk, on 06/18/2009, -0/+15You are absolutely right. I wouldn't do it in a million years. That is slavery, save the bondage part. Lay me off. I'll get a job or work for free in my own garden; and get something in return.
- r0t8, on 06/18/2009, -0/+14who the hell would work without being paid?
- tgc1, on 06/18/2009, -1/+14Lay off and No Pay ARE THE SAME GOD DAMNED THING. Only in one you're WASTING your ***** time working for a company that is clearly insane.
- sulthernao, on 06/18/2009, -0/+12Actually in a model market this is exactly what should happen - employees get paid less, but there is still full employment (goods cost less and voila end of recession due to self correcting mechanisms).
Obviously we don't live in a model market with sticky prices and all the rest. - inactive, on 06/18/2009, -0/+12if i work without pay they better not fire me
- crossmr, on 06/18/2009, -1/+12that'd be awesome if you knew what outweight means.
- Tony611, on 06/18/2009, -0/+11touché
- Cloud7654, on 06/18/2009, -1/+11Not necessarily. That would only be true if they were forced to work without pay, but BA is asking their employees to do so. They can quit at any time.
- DaDrake, on 06/18/2009, -1/+11He also opted out of numerous benefits/bonuses, both last year and even for the next two years.
But yea, the company is in the ***** and the greatest CEO can't save a business that can't compete with its competitors, and one that has too many competitors. To give you an idea, BA pays its employees nearly 2X other major airlines. The employees still make *****... but that difference is enough to put the business in the red. - HRedH, on 06/18/2009, -1/+11Did anyone note in the article when they were discussing cabin crew ratios that BAs higher ratio is contributed by history. The union and the fact that BA was controlled by the state led to a situation where BA was forced to support too many personnel rendering it unable to compete outside of the state's protective wing. I think this article illustrates to some degree the effects of government and union intervention on a company. While unions may protect the rights of the workers (questionable because forcing a company out of business doesn't really protect the union member's jobs) they tend to violate the rights of the company. Lets not forget the union would not exist without the company so it would be easy to assume it would be in the union's best intrest to maximize the profits the company makes. This would allow for the company to grow, hire more people, promote, and increase wages
If companies are expected to succeed and produce in our world we shouldn't set out to cut their legs out from under them.
Thoughts?
sry i kinda went on a tangent about unions... - Sugaruss, on 06/18/2009, -0/+10If the company cannot pay its bills, it should leverage its equity; the employees should be paid in stock.
- DrLeePhD, on 06/18/2009, -0/+9he should work for $40,000yr minus one months pay.
- DouglasQ, on 06/18/2009, -2/+11Voluntarily it's kindness.
'Do it or get fired' it's blackmail.
get your crimes straight. - AaronCo, on 06/18/2009, -2/+10Lay them off and they can look for work elsewhere or get unemployment.
Or, perhaps, just perhaps, they could find another place to cut instead.
They have no right to ask a professional staff to work for free. Everyone has to eat. - liquisoft, on 06/18/2009, -0/+8I looked up the word "job." Here's the first definition:
Job: a paid position of regular employment
These people do their jobs because they're paid to do them. Performing a job for no pay means it's not a job anymore. It's now volunteer work OR slave labor (depending upon circumstances). If it's volunteer work, then these people should receive some sort of benefit. If it's slave labor, then they'd simply be receiving threats that if they don't do their free work they'll be fired (aka, "we might have to downsize you"). - tgc1, on 06/18/2009, -1/+940,000 employees push CEO off loading platform onto tarmac. CEO is forced to rethink his ways. Last seen running from angry mob.
- DrLeePhD, on 06/18/2009, -0/+7plenty of people who have worked there for 30+ years and near retirement will just go along with it like they've got a gun to their head. it's really no way to run a company, and shows no respect of their employees.
- inactive, on 06/18/2009, -1/+8Good lord, he will lose about 570k, but gain 1.7 million over the year...
- DaviDTC, on 06/18/2009, -0/+7I bet if you didn't read the article.
"Mr Walsh (chief executive) – who, along with finance director Keith Williams, is forgoing his pay for July" - ousthouse, on 06/18/2009, -3/+10I'd like to take you up on your bet.
- djpray2k, on 06/18/2009, -1/+8Discussed this at work yesterday as a hyperthetical and whether it's the right thing for a company to do, as an employee I'd go for it. I've already spent six months out of work thanks to the recession and if going one month without pay meant I had a paid job the month after it is better than not having a job at all.
- jer2eydevil88, on 06/18/2009, -0/+7Expensive all inclusive air travel is a dead service, BA needs to either adjust or fail but they shouldn't bothering with these shenanigans.
- Ymeg, on 06/18/2009, -1/+7How is it slavery if you agree to work without pay?
- bonofosho, on 06/18/2009, -2/+8An economist will tell you that if your business model includes not paying your employees, your pretty much already screwed.
- collution, on 06/18/2009, -2/+8Slaves.
- thesaba, on 06/18/2009, -1/+7I will be willing to work without pay after they pay me for not working.
- Hamletlere, on 06/18/2009, -0/+6Oddly, I'd prefer what my company is doing: not paying me for two weeks, but giving me the two weeks OFF.
- LocalDocal, on 06/18/2009, -0/+6Well, an economist might tell you to read the article, which states that British Airlines seems to be losing a nice chunk of business already, so I somehow doubt that increasing prices will help, especially if British Airlines is losing business to competitors already.
Secondly, also according to the article, Business Airlines seems to have unions meaning mass layoffs probably won't end well. - digghasnoethics, on 06/18/2009, -0/+6Work for free, hell no.
However giving staff the option of working for a week for stock would be acceptable, say a share in place of every £1 of salary. That way they still get paid, and the company can invent the shares out of thin air. Interestingly, its something like that that they are proposing to the pilots, although not generous enough.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterial ... -
Show 51 - 100 of 205 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is