Returning to the topic, I do find it quite appalling that companies such as BA can make literally billions of pounds of profit one year, yet at the first sign of trouble they ask their staff to take time off unpaid. I don't think this happened quite so readily in the past, and my view is that employees should just say no. Large companies have reserves, and its completely right that they should be digging into these reserves to get them through hard times - instead of greedily hanging onto them in preference to asking their staff not to be paid.