Sorry Willie, we won’t work for nowt
LONDON – Reports from London indicate that unions are skeptical about BA boss Willie Walsh’s call for staff to work for a month without pay.
Walsh’s article in the airline’s staff newspaper, BA News, said he plans to work for nothing in July and workers should consider making a similar gesture to relieve BA’s chronic financial position.
A spokesman for Unite, the union that represents BA cabin crew and baggage handlers, countered, “Willie Walsh can afford to work a month for free; our members can’t.â€


Walsh earns £700,000 a year, has a gold-plated pension, and got a six percent pay increase last year in the face of imminent recession; baggage handlers start on around £17,000 a year.
Trades Union Congress general secretary Brendan Barber said, 

”Top managers need to understand that average and lower-paid staff usually have little flexibility in their personal finances. A month with no income would mean that bills could not be paid and mortgage payments missed.
“What might be a tad uncomfortable in the boardroom may be impossible on the shop floor.”
Stephen Alambritis, spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses, accused Walsh of “panic managementâ€.
Cathay Pacific recently asked staff to take leave without pay and there is a precedent for work without pay.
Bill Heineke, CEO and chairman of Minor International, whose portfolio of hotels includes Marriott, Four Seasons and Anantara brands, told the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference he and his executives had taken pay cuts and the corporate office had been requested to perform some work without pay.
Said Heineke, “I think at first they thought I was suggesting they take holiday without pay, but I said, ‘no, I want you to work without pay’.â€
The good news for BA is that pilots’ union, BALPA, has agreed, subject to a vote by members, to 2.6 percent salary reductions from October this year and longer working hours, in return for equity in the company
Ian Jarrett
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