BA created a stink earlier in the week with news that they're asking staff to work for free to help reduce the threat of redundancies as they look to survive the financial storm battering the company.  Accountancy firm KPMG recently announced thata few hundred of its staff have been offered sabbaticals or a shorter working week.

Now telecoms giant BT have now waded into this debate by offering to 'loan out' staff to competitors.  Such tactics are very common in the sporting world where young players are loaned out to smaller teams to help them gain experience but to my knowledge this may be the first such move by a major UK company.

In an agreement drawn up with unions, BT described the initiative, part of a wider “Project Holborn” cost-cutting scheme, as “a way of maintaining employees in employment with the company” during the recession.

It said that placements outside the company would be offered initially on a voluntary basis but would be enforced if fewer people than necessary volunteered. 

As in the sporting world, BT would retain the rights to the employees and they would remain on the BT pension scheme, but the competitor would pay their wages for the period of the loan.

What do you think of this strategy? Would you be happy to be 'loaned out'?