Sunday 26 July 2009

Sacré Bleu! "Bossnapping?" C'est une Liberté Diabolique!

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French employees have taken a rather novel approach to addressing employee relations issues. Last Thursday, when the demand of workers facing redundancy for guaranteed redundancy payments of at least €30,000 was rejected by air cargo firm Servisair, rather than politely balloting their members for industrial action (as the rational Brits would have done) the French employees kidnapped Managing Director Andy Cowie and Chief Executive Abderrahmane El-Aouffir and held them captive overnight in an attempt to force a change of mind.

The action seems to have had very limited success: four Servisair Cargo employees have been charged with kidnapping, obstruction, disturbing the peace and inflicting psychological violence.

Do you believe that such an approach is likely to achieve the objectives of the Trade Unions within Servisair Cargo?

What are the likely long-term consequences of such a dramatic negotiation technique?


Research question: where does the UK rank in terms of instances of industrial action? Help!

Research question: where does the UK rank in terms of Trade Union density (i.e the percent of the workforce who are members of Trade Unions)? Help!

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