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By Stuart Fagg, ninemsn Money, June 2009

UK airline British Airways has asked thousands of its staff for work for free in July in a bid to save the company from disaster.

The airline's chief executive Willie Walsh emailed the company's 40,000 staff to make the plea after BA lost $800 million in the last year.

Mr Walsh will work for free for the month, waiving his $120,000 monthly salary.

Surprisingly, 800 staff agreed to work for free for the month and around 7000 staff agreed to take voluntary pay cuts. Workers' sacrifices will save the company $20 million.

What do you think?

Would you work for free to save your job?

Are companies neglecting their staff when they reduce hours or force unpaid leave?

Should British Airways sort out its financial problems in other ways?

Join the debate and have your say.

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User comments

Yeah I think the question should be rephrased to 'would you work for free if you could afford it'. For the company i am currently working for i really love the company, people and the job i do and if i could afford it, yes i would work for free. I believe that people should get paid for the work they do but i also believe the old philosophy, 'you scratch my back and ill scratch yours'

Now to me it has always been a puzzel, why does some one who is an employee feel he can pull out money from a company as though they had built it single handedly. No eployee ie. CEO should be paid more than $500,000 max , there jobs have no more pressure than any other hard working member of the company, they just get to do it with a nice office and support staff, with a large expence account , look at how dumb the CEO of Sydney ferries is most are like that

Now that BA has asked their employees to work for the airline free of charge for a month, I suggest that the management might also think of selling shares to evey employee in the future, so though, they work for free, at least they are part owner of the business, and so many will be inclined to work for free. I am not familiar with the structure of BA, whether it is government owned or semi-government owned, and I am not sure if it is possible. It is just a thought.

In a word, NO, absolutely not, I have rent and a family and expenses, I could not survive on nothing but promises...and I think it is rude that large companies expect the little people to be the ones to make the sacrifices for their bad management.

No, I wouldn't work for free. I have done this in the past for an employer who was in trouble, it didn't save my job and I realised with hindsight that I was just being used. When you employ people, it is your responsibility to pay them.

In a word, NO. My time is worth more than what I currently get paid and the bills are still going to keep coming in whether I work or not. Very few people could afford to do that and if you could then good for you!

Why should anyone work for free for a company that has already shown it is incapable of managing their finances. My attitude is if the company cannot make a profit then they shouldn't be in business anyway - not ask the workers to underwrite their mistakes

im unemployed and the jobs consultant said i should work for free to get work experience,i started working at 11yo so my 40 yrs work exp doesnt count,should i work for free?

this guy is a joker, he must be having a laugh! we peasants at the big white kangaroo already work for peanuts so dont get any ideas mr joyce or you to will be politely told where you can put your request....

why !! how about their top execs all forgo a months pay and bonus, im quite sure that amount would exceed the workers unpaid labour, after all it has been the decisions that these execs made that got the company in this situation, but once again its the average employee made to feel guilty and obligated to make sacrifices for bad management, oh and i really dont think the top execs would be hurting from it either, how do i know ? im an airline employee too

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