What price goodwill and loyalty?

"The proposed contract changes are viewed by many Spirit employees as deeply unpopular and the Burton-based group can expect few Christmas cards this year" Part of my job in reporting City and business news demands a degree of devil’s advocacy. Take the employment contract situation at Spirit (see our web story: 'Spirit Group plans to merge employment contracts spark staff fury'). On the one hand I appreciate a large group like the Punch-owned operator wanting to level off what it sees as the contractual idiosyncrasies across its business that have arisen as a result of buying several companies over a period of many years. A ‘one size fits all’ deal establishes consistency across the group, allows for flexibility and reduces complexity. For the pubco, at least. There will also be some staff for whom the deal will be an... [read full story]