Paxboy:
Sure, I'm not saying that I support people loafing around!! When I was a telecomms consultant in the 1990s/early 2000s, I was very frustrated by seeing people being paid high sums of money when they knew very little about their job! They had just hung in there long enough, not upset anyone and bumbled along. As long as they did not make any major foul ups - they stayed in place.
It's not how it should be but it's how it often is. The larger the company the more difficult it is to trap time servers and wastrels. If those staff are often away from base (almost any travel company but you can include drivers of vehicles for delivery who were only restricted when the Tachometer began law and other workers away from base) then you have a major managerial problem. Many, many, many companies fail in that task.
There may be a link in that telecoms is another privatised industry in this country. It certainly isn't the norm across the private sector. I arrived at BA from another airline some years ago, and both watching from the outside, and then from the inside, was completely aghast at the freeloading culture within. It wasn't and isn't just a question of cabin crew, it was throughout the company. I can distinctly remember looking around on a Friday afternoon and wondering where everyone had gone - it simply doesn't happen in most companies. They do have inevitable inefficiences, but Tesco (for example) absolutely do not tolerate this kind of thing.
Trying to change that culture is difficult to say the least. Truth is, BA don't help themselves in the long run with their determination to offer voluntary severance packages. The best staff are the ones that leave, the freeloaders tend to stay.