Boss-class hypocrisy

·Managers who have long defended their huge pay have a cheek asking staff to work for nothing.
by Mark Lawson
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/18/british-airways-work-free

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The novelty of the economic crisis has been a series of schemes encouraging staff to take unpaid leave, salary reduction or to work for a month without money as an alternative to being laid off. In the most high-profile example, British Airways has won substantial pay cuts from its pilots while encouraging other staff to work gratis for part of the year.
[...]
At the risk of encouraging my employers and enraging my agent, I[Mark Lawson] probably would be prepared, having had some very good and lucky years, to do much the same work next year for less than the fees paid this. But I would agree to this from the visceral, Dickensian fear of all employees that the workhouse looms as the alternative, and would nurse the angry suspicion that the superiors benefitting from our sacrifices were not suffering as much themselves. When the upturn comes, will they raise the payments or smirkingly continue with a cheaper workforce? (The BA pilots have at least been given shares as the price of their privation.)

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