British Airways made the headlines yesterday with news that they are asking their 40,000 staff to work free of charge for a month in an effort to cut costs at the airline who are facing up to large losses again this year, after a £401 million loss in 2008.  BA boss Willie Walsh is aiming to lead by example in this initiative but with new cabin crew paid approximately £11,000 is this a fair request to make when family finances are already being squeezed by the credit crunch?  What can BA do to soften this blow and prove to their employees that they are still a valued part of the business?

Is unpaid work a valid alternative to redundancy?

It seems clear that BA are in financial difficulty and this measure is being intended as an alternative to redundancy.  We've seen a similar tactic used by other companies during this credit crunch.  For instance at the start of the year car company Honda shut its factory in Swindon for four months.  Workers recently returned to work at the plant, albeit to a 3% reduction in wages.  Under the Honda scheme however employees recieved full pay for two months and 60% of salary for the remaining two months, so it's perhaps not directly applicable to the BA case.  If the choice was a stark decision between accepting the bitter medicine or facing the chop though, how would you react? 

The 2009 salary survey conducted by the CMI found that a surprising number of you would be quite happy to take this seemingly drastic action if it meant saving your job in the longer term.  This is supported by further research by recruitment consultants GlassDoor.com that showed that 34% of people would take an unpaid leave of absence to save their jobs longterm.

Is there an alternative to unpaid work though?

Ok, so employees might be willing to take this short-term pain but it's far from ideal.  Pretty much every business now trumpets the importance of its staff and how crucial they are to the wellbeing of that business.  So what alternatives are there that can help you to reduce costs at the same time as maintaining morale amongst your workforce?

The aforementioned salary survey uncovered a number of iniatives people would value in place of salary.  Some of the incentives uncovered included:

• Increases in holiday allowance
• Redeployment to other business areas
• Time off in lieu of work
• Greater training support

This final one is a key one for me because not only does providing training help your staff in the work they do for you, and subsequently make them feel more valued by your company, it also adds significantly to their employability by others should the dreaded chop come their way.  This would be particularly useful in the BA example because staff there must be very concerned.  In the same inhouse newspaper that delivered the unpaid work message staff were informed that the company faces a 'fight for survival'.  BA isn't a charity so you can certainly understand employees reluctance to engage in such an activity. 

BA simply have to do something to sweeten this bitter pill because at the moment this strategy appears to fall halfway between what is really required.  On one hand it fails to accept the need to streamline the organisation and remove some of the fat hanging over from the days of nationalisation.  On the other hand it hangs the spectre of redundancy over the entire workforce, including the thousands of employees that do a fantastic job and have a long-term future at the company.

What do you think of the BA iniative?  How would you react if your company offered you unpaid work?