So according to the Telegraph, BT with 106,000 staff - is trying to save money as it struggles to cope with the impact of the recession.
BT has proposed that employees take up to a year off, in return for taking a 75 per cent pay cut. To encourage as many workers to take up of the offer, the company will pay their reduced salary as an upfront cash payment.
Parents are also being offered the opportunity to work only in school term times, so they can spend the summer holidays with their children.
The radical proposals - leaked to The Daily Telegraph - are the latest example of the private sector having to adopt increasingly desperate and inventive measures to tackle the recession by cutting costs without sacking staff.
On the face these proposals are sensible and make the best of a bad situation.
The employer avoids the cost and stress of a redundancy programme; The employee retains a job albeit at a lower amount.
The problem for the Company may be exclusively linked to the econonmy; there may be deeper issues which it is facing which are companycenttric. I wonder if the Board want to pin the blame on itself.
As is the way the real test of the "success" of the programme is the way that it is delivered to the staff. Are the HR staff competent on the softer side? Is there mediation in place to resolve misunderstandings?
The very fact that BT staff today will be acquiring information about the programme via the internet and not management is not a good start. BT is now playing catch up.