Does anyone with knowledge of employment law know if this is actually legal ?
I am not a legal or HR expert, but surely this is more a question of reasonability and flexability from the staff. Lack of flexability will cost jobs as companies are unable to cover cost with no revenue coming in.
The potential impact on all areas of the industry through this is imense. The only way HA's and other retailers will be able to get through this is with reasonableness from staff. It is annoying as it feels like the companies are trying to get one over on the staff, but if the company is not taking revenue but still having massive costs (as I am sure people are the biggest cost to a business) there is only one way for a company to go . . .
This thread is based on Swissport redundancies, but is relevant to all companies.
Any companies who are offering the above options should be commended as they are trying to ensure all staff can pay the mortgage/bills at the end of this month, and every month going forward and the staff can make their own mind up about their financial/life situation. Anyone who decides that they are going to just turn up to work and get paid may be jepardising the financial position of the company, themselves and their colleagues. In these difficult times, we have all seen the impact of company balance sheets becoming unbalanced through no fault of the staff (Globespan, Alba, Sky Europe, Zoom, XL, SilverJet . . .). Aviance Sold out of the UK (except LHR). Although each of those situations are different, the effect from the staff can be positive or negative.
With all this in mind, I am not sure if anyone needs to look to far in to the legalities of it as the people have a choice.
Staff, Unions, Management, now is a good time to pull in the same direction to ride out this latest storm (no pun intended).
GA