Airbus May Mandate Employees Work 5 Hours Free

Airbus may extend its workweek by five hours without compensating their employees, according to a recent article on Yahoo from Reuters

While it's common for Americans to work 50 hours or more per week, the standard workweek in France is 35. In America, however, longer hours typically means higher pay; either in overtime pay or a negotiated higher salary.

Which is the way it should be. When a business provides a good or service, payment is required. If another good or service is provided, another payment is expected.

When a payment is not provided, it is considered stealing. When an employee is forced to work without compensation, it is, in essence, slavery.

As such, Airbus' potential actions could be viewed two ways: 1) a lower average hourly wage for employees; or 2) regular, short-term company-mandated slavery.

Neither is appealing for employees.

In America, unions would fight this. In France and Germany, the unions may concede to the management at Airbus. Businesses owners have long hated the 35 hour week and union leadership may be forced to agree to the five-hour addition. Their hands may be tied.

Why would union leadership agree to this? It might be due to Airbus' plan to cut an estimated 10,000 jobs. If you're keeping track, that's an enormous number of employees for any company to shed. If you're a conspiracy theorist, you might think that since union leaders are also employees, they may be playing nice to avoid the ax. The more realistic answer, however, is they might agree to the increase in hours in order to reduce the number of job cuts. Either way, the Airbus job cuts are closely related to the increase in hours.

What should an Airbus employee do during these potentially dark times? The same thing employees should do at any company facing cut backs or salary reductions: be ready to get out.

Before leaving, however, it's wise to have a job or sufficient savings. It's also helpful to be ready to relocate in order to find other employment. This may not be an appealing option for many workers. It may prove essential, though. In essence, it might be the best (if not only) way to make lemonade out of the lemon presented.

The changes are coming at Airbus, and for employees, the writing is on the wall. They will likely face one of three choices: 1) quitting; 2) being laid off; or 3) donating five hours of slavery per week.