BA asks staff to work for nothing

British Airways is asking thousands of staff to work for nothing, for up to one month, to help the airline survive.

The appeal, sent by e-mail to more than 30,000 workers in the UK, asks them to volunteer for between one week and one month’s unpaid leave, or unpaid work.

BA’s chief executive Willie Walsh has already agreed to work unpaid in July, forgoing his month’s salary of £61,000.

Last month, BA posted a record annual loss of £401m, partly due to higher fuel bills and other costs.

‘Fight for survival’

BA has said that hundreds of staff have responded positively to the request.

But some employees and unions have condemned the plan, saying improvements in the management of the airline were a bigger priority.

Indeed cabin crew and baggage handlers contacted by the BBC rejected the plan out of hand.

“It’s a big no. A very big no. Everyone is up in arms. We’re not taking it. I’d love to take a month’s unpaid leave but I can’t afford to do that,” said one baggage handler at Heathrow.

But Mr Walsh said BA’s drive to save cash was part of a “fight for survival”.

“I am looking for every single part of the company to take part in some way in this cash-effective way of helping the company’s survival plan,” he said.

“It really counts,” he added.

BA has been in urgent talks during the past few weeks with trade unions at the company over other ways to save money.

Details of a large pay and productivity deal are expected to be announced on Wednesday.

Flexible scheme
BA planes
BA won’t say how much it hopes to save by its latest initiative

A company spokesman said it did not have an exact target for the expected savings from its appeal.

“As much as possible, but we don’t have a figure,” he said.

The idea was first launched last month when the airline asked staff to volunteer for a month’s unpaid leave, or to work for free for that time.

That attracted more than 1,000 applicants.

But the company’s more recent version of its scheme, launched last week by e-mail and in an article in the internal staff newspaper BA News, is more flexible.

It asks staff to volunteer by the end of this month for between one week and one month of unpaid leave or unpaid work.

The lost salary will be spread over between three and six months.

Unusual

BA said other airlines, such as Cathay Pacific, had launched similar schemes and a majority of their workforces had signed up for them.

Many employers have imposed pay cuts or short-time working since the recession struck the UK last year.

“In certain cases such as Honda, they shut down for several weeks,” said Alistair Hatchett of the research organisation Incomes Data Services.

“Where it is obvious the economic circumstances are tough, people are willing to talk.

“Where employers try it on opportunistically, then there is a challenge,” he added.

“While some options may seem unattractive, particularly where they involve reduced income, many employees will conclude that the alternative of losing their job looks bleaker,” said Mike Emmott of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

What is your spiritual style?

I had an e-mail from Fr Jonathan Ivanoff today, urging me to participate in a Spiritual Style Research Project.

As the organisers of the project put it:

The Institute for Natural Church Development (NCD International) is developing a test that will help Christians identify
which of nine “spiritual styles” he or she presently displays: the sensory, rational, doctrinal, Scripture-driven, sharing, ascetic, enthusiastic, mystical, or sacramental style. The spiritual style describes the unique way you can best connect with God.

In order to produce such a test, NCD International needs the participation of many believers representing diverse spiritual traditions. Please visit www.3colorsofyourspirituality.org and fill in the online survey. You will get your results immediately. They will not be exact yet, as the test is still in the process of development, and your participation is part of that development. However, you will gain a first indication as to which of the nine styles mentioned above is likely to be your personal “antenna for God.”

Fr Jonathan explains why he wants Orthodox Christians, especially, to participate in the project:

I have been involved for some years now with a particular line of parish ministry having to do with parish revitalization and church health. There are some gentlemen involved in that ministry that have asked me for my help in some research they are doing, and that leads to this email to you.

There is a link provided below that will take you to a website for a survey that will take about 15 minutes. The researchers are looking for Orthodox Christians to take this survey on what they term “spiritual styles.” I hoping that enough of us can take this survey so that, quite frankly, I can explode some of their preconceptions (or even misconceptions) regarding Orthodoxy, so you would not only be doing me a big favor but doing our beloved Faith and Church a service by undertaking
this survey.

Trust me, it is indeed for a good cause! I have been working with this people for a while, and they sincerely desire to know more about the Orthodox Christian faith, and taking this survey will be one way to help them do so.

From what I know of it the project is concerned with Christians of all traditions, but in many research projects of this kind Orthodox Christians are omitted or excluded, which results in the kinds of misconceptions Fr Jonathan refers to.

I would also add that the researchers also record countries, and it would be interesting to know if the “spiritual styles” vary from country to country, so it would be good if South African Christians of all traditions were to take part. Any Zionists out there reading this blog?

I did the preliminary survey, and was given my preliminary scores:

• Rational style was the lowest, at 103
• Sacramental style was highest at 117

And all the others were somewhere in between.

I have no idea how to interpret these results, though I would expect most Orthodox Christians to score fairly high on the “sacramental” one.

Is it on a scale of 100-120 or what? Otherwise it seems a fairly narrow range.

What is the highest, and what is the lowest possible score for any of those?

It’s impossible to tell, but perhaps all will be revealed when they’ve refined their survey, and their book comes out.

But I can see that the more who participate, the more accurate the result is likely to be, so if you have 15 minutes to spare, go to the site and answer the questionnaire, and if your results differ wildly from mine, come back and we can speculate in comments until the researchers come and spill the beans on what they are up to.

Iranian Americans Hit the Streets

Tired of sitting at their computers, refreshing their browsers for the latest news and of waiting by their phones for friends and relatives to call, Iranian Americans are showing their solidarity today by taking to the streets. In Washington DC , they will meet 11 am, and will march from the Iranian Interest Section on Wisconsin Ave to the Lincoln Memorial. In New York, they will be outside CNN building from 12-2 and the UN at 2pm. In fact, there are rallies all over the nation, to find one near you, please check Facebook.

As a precursor to today’s rally, about 70 Iranians from the DC area came out for a “WHERE is MY VOTE” rally in front of the interest section. “My heart goes out to the Iranian people, because at the end of the day, we can go back to our normal lives. They are the ones who have to live there and have no other choices,” expressed one attendee. The Interest Section wasn’t actually open, so that’s why there’s another one today.

One woman made it clear to note that, “We are not part of ANY organization,” to make sure that they were not confused with other groups such as the MEK or supporters of the Shah, who typically protest in opposition to the government of Iran throughout the year.

This is a rare moment, when the Iranian Diaspora, who might not be very politically active or vocal has gone public with their support for the people of Iran.  What we can do here is modest and in the end, we can go to back to our comfortable lives, turning off the news and shutting down our computers, but it’s better than what we normally do- sitting in our homes, talking  and complaining amongst ourselves.

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