BA chief earns staff ire with free work plan

London: British Airways (BA) chief Willie Walsh has suggested that his staff should consider working for free.

Job cuts, pay freezes, companies begging staff to take unpaid leave - all these have become commonplace in the last six months.

But BA chief executive Willie Walsh has trumped the lot by suggesting, in an article in the airline's staff newspaper, BA News, that staff should consider working for nothing. That's what he plans to do in July. So will the idea fly?

Not if Unite, the union that represents BA cabin crew and baggage handlers, has anything to do with it. "Willie Walsh can afford to work a month for free; our members can't," a spokesman says.

Walsh earns £700,000 (Dh4.19 million) a year, has a gold-plated pension, and got a six per cent pay increase last year in the face of imminent recession; baggage handlers start on around £17,000 a year.

"When times are tough and businesses are struggling, unions are ready to negotiate and discuss options that would normally be unacceptable," TUC general secretary Brendan Barber says.

"But 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 shopfloor."

Stephen Bevan, managing director of the Work Foundation, says Walsh's proposal "has a worrying feel of panic about it." Stephen Alambritis, spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses, also uses the P-word:

"It's panic management. It reminds me of Hull City manager Phil Brown humiliating his team by giving them their half-time team talk in the middle of the pitch when they were being thrashed."