>> As far as I know, in the UK unemployment benefit is unrelated to your 
>> prior income and is computed based only on how much money they think 
>> you "need" in order to survive. (E.g., stuff like whether you have 
>> children.)
> 
> Here it is a percentage of your last income. Makes sense in a way, 

Yeah, I guess.

>> Somebody asked if Fathead is taking a pay cut as well. We are told he 
>> is. (Obviously, there is no way to actually verify this.)
> 
> Ask him to proof it ;)

It's interesting... If Adam had said he was taking a 10% pay cut too, we 
would all just believe him without even thinking about it. But when 
Fathead says it, we're all suspicious... Maybe because he's such a good 
manager?

>>> Did you check if such a thing is even legal in the UK? What do the 
>>> unions say about this?
>>
>> It's legal if we all sign a written document agreeing to it. It is 
>> required to be unanimous though.
> 
> Does that mean it is only legal if it is unanimous or that they want 
> full pressure from do-workers on everybody?

We are told it's only legal if it's unanimous. IANAL. Maybe it's just a 
ploy?

>> The fact of the matter is, last year two key people left the company - 
>> our Director of Business Development, and shortly afterwards our 
>> General Manager. Since that time, our order book has become 
>> progressively more empty. 
> 
> Are you sure you have the events in chronological and causative order?

It would be a lie to say that the Director of BD left and the next day 
the lab was empty. It is true, however, that the BD guy left suddenly 
and unexpectedly (apparently HQ did something he didn't like), and that 
Adam left suddenly and unexpectedly shortly after that. And it's most 
assuredly true that nobody likes Fathead, our new site manager.

The recent quietness could be due to any number of things... it just 
seems like a bit of a coincidence that we now have 5 BD people instead 
of just 1, but there's no work. You could blame the banking crash 
(indeed, Fathead does), but it was quiet before that.

>> Then we got rid of our lab manager (we're not sure why, it just 
>> randomly happened one afternoon).
> 
> So the short version is that everybody that was actually able to find 
> new work is no longer working there? Enquiring mind wants to know.

Since Fathead has been our manager, staff turnover has been absurdly 
high. Like before, we'd maybe hire 1 person per year. And maybe 1 person 
would leave in a given year. And they'd announce that they're leaving, 
and a month or two later they'd actually leave. And we would probably 
all go out for a meal and say goodbye and stuff.

With Fathead in charge, you just come in one morning and there's some 
person you don't recognise wandering around, and it turns out they work 
for us now. Or we'll have a meeting and Fathead says "by the way, X no 
longer works for us, as of 2PM yesterday", and we're all like WTF?!

I especially like the way he decided to take on some temp staff in the lab.

1. The lab was almost empty, so why more staff?
2. It takes *months* to perform and document all the formal training in 
our policies and procedures before the new person can actually do any work.
3. During this training, somebody has to by training the person rather 
than doing their own job.

We had 2 people work for us for a month. Why? They didn't even finish 
their training period before their contracts ended. WORTH IT! Well that 
was a waste of money...

So anyway, several high-profile people have left suddenly, and with the 
lab being empty for so many months now, everybody has been getting 
twitchy about job security. And now this happens...

>> Basically, they want us all to take a pay cut, they can't tell us how 
>> long for, they can't tell as a specific condition for removing the 
>> cut, and we need to decide, unanimously, in the next few hours. Great.
> 
> That pressure alone would make it illegal in my opinion, but IANAL.

It _is_ suspecious that last month, things were "poor but managable", 
and now suddenly this week it's high-noon. Why?

>> PS. I'd almost consider resigning myself just so my collegues can keep 
>> their jobs... but my pittiful salary is unlikely to make much difference.
> 
> Here that would mean voluntary unemployment and a complete loss of benefit.

Possibly here too. I don't know.

> Whatever you decide: go looking for another job.

Er, yeah. Even if there are no pay cuts and I get to keep my job, this 
is *not* the company to work for! o_O

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